Haverhill town councillors oppose anaerobic digestion plant proposal for Streetly End

A proposal to build an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant four miles from Haverhill has been described as ‘greenwashing’ and having ‘no economic or environmental benefit to the area’.

The criticism of the proposal to build the AD plant at Streetly Hall Farm, in Webbs Road, West Wickham, came out of last Monday’s meeting of Haverhill Town Council planning committee.

A decision is also being awaited from Suffolk County Council on a separate planning application for another AD plant in Withersfield, the neighbouring village to West Wickham.

During Monday’s meeting, Cllr Philip Stiles recalled being at a presentation made by the Streetly Farm AD applicant, Chris Covey, to Horseheath Parish Council (the village sits next to West Wickham).

Cllr Stiles, a member of Withersfield Parish Council, said: “As far as I could tell there will be no economic benefit to this area.

“I think it (the gas produced by the plant) will be taken by truck to, I think, Hull, where it will be exported by pipeline to the continent, so quite where the economic or social benefit for this area lies I have no idea.”

The planning application, which went to the committee for a second time following a revision, said all the farm food waste, such as maize, rye and manure, that would be converted on site into biomethane would come from within a 12km radius.

Cllr Stiles felt this would see lorry movements through Withersfield and Horseheath that would create a ‘long-term community problem’.

Haverhill town councillor and current mayor David Smith said he could not see the applicant producing enough food waste from their own farm for the AD plant.

He added: “So it just has to be greenwashing really doesn’t it?

“It’s just a business plan dressing itself up as an environmental benefit, but it’s not got an environmental benefit to this area.”

An access road into and out of the West Wickham plant would be off the A1307, which was opposed on safety grounds – just as it was when the same committee first discussed the proposal in December.

Cllr Tony Brown said: “It has potential dangers to vehicles exiting the site, particularly those turning right, because they are going to have to go across the traffic and into the coming traffic. That stretch of road is a 50mph road.”

Lorries weighing 38 tonnes and measuring 16.5 metres long would be entering and exiting the AD plant site, added Cllr Brown, who said: “They are not known for their acceleration, or anything like that.

“It’s like an elephant dragging itself across that carriageway and I think it’s a danger to the traffic that is on that road and quite a severe danger and there’s no need for it.”

Cllr Indy Wijenayaka, a parish and West Suffolk District councillor for Withersfield, added having two AD plants close to Haverhill would ‘undermine the business case for the economic strength of Haverhill’.

Councillors unanimously objected to the revised proposal.