Waste plant plans turned down

Nearly every household in the villages of Beeford, North Frodingham and Foston, objected to the plans for a large anaerobic digester, which would have turned 82,000 tonnes of animal waste into bio-gas and a fertiliser by-product.

Councillors in Beverley refused the plans this afternoon.

Ward councillor Jonathan Owen said residents should be congratulated on the quality of the information they had produced to make their argument.

He said the numbers “didn’t stack up” with the proposals suggesting 33,000 tonnes of digestate - the by-product of the process - could be spread on the 600 acres at the site off Foston Lane, Beeford, when Defra guidance suggested the land, which is in a nitrate vulnerable zone, was capable of taking just 11,000 tonnes.