Bio-mass plant opponents hope MP will strengthen campaign

Proposals to build the 15megawatt power station, costing as much as 50m, on the site of a turkey farm at Game Slack have raised concerns in Wetwang and the nearby villages of Fimber and Sledmere.

Residents, who are having a private meeting with the MP on Thursday, are planning to travel en masse to Beverley in a fortnight's time, when the application is due to be heard.

East Yorkshire Power Ltd say the scheme will bring economic benefits to the area, employ six full-time staff and create opportunities for local farmers, hauliers and contractors.

But villagers have a long list of concerns – from the plant's impact on the landscape to emissions from its chimney.

They have questioned the plant's efficiency and are concerned about heavy goods vehicles using local roads.

Before the plant can be built, about 310,00 tonnes of chalk has to be excavated from the farm over a 36-month period, with a little less than 400 tonnes of chalk being taken each day.

Parish Council vice chairman Andrew McCormack said they'd taken heart from new Government guidelines.

"This plant is only looking to generate electricity and the Government's current guidelines which (Environment Minister) Chris Huhne expressed, was that they would only be looking to approve those which had combined heat and power generation.

"This will produce 15mw of power, three of which will be used by the plant itself, but from the information drawn from the planning application, it will only be 35 per cent efficient because it is not making use of heat generation.

"The plant will be burning biomass – it could be straw or wood chip, but you already have Drax drawing in vast quantities of straw. It is a fairly major impact on the Wold and we'd say this is the wrong plant, as it's not efficient, and in the wrong place. It should be on an industrial site.

"Because of the level of traffic that has to come from various parts of East Yorkshire we don't believe it will ever be carbon neutral."

Two public meetings have each attracted more than 100 people and a contingent of opponents is preparing to attend the planning meeting at County Hall on July 1.

In a statement, Pegasus Planning Group which is acting for the applicants said all the issues had been thoroughly examined.

About 40 letters of support had come from the surrounding area and they reckoned public opinion at a two-day public exhibition was split more equally between those in favour and those against.

The Group said: "The principal benefit is producing renewable energy, for each single mega watt of the overall 15mw capacity that is produced this will displace the need for this electricity to be produced by 'traditional' means (coal-fired powered stations for example). This will have benefits in securing reduced carbon footprint and greater security for the country's energy supplies.

"The new government is committed to increasing the countries renewable energy resource, as emphasised by their recent announcement to increase production from 20 per cent to 30 per cent. This will inevitably involve a full suite of solutions, whether they solely produce electricity or other renewable energies."