Haverhill Town Council objects to proposed anaerobic digestion plant in West Wickham amid safety concerns over A1307 access

An objection has been lodged by Haverhill Town Council to a proposal for an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at a farm in West Wickham.

Members of the council’s planning working party agreed to object to the proposal for the biogas plant at Streetly Hall Farm, in Streetly End, when it met on Monday.

Councillors heard from one member of the public, who said that should the West Wickham plant be approved, together with another AD plant proposed by Acorn Bioenergy for the neighbouring village of Withersfield (which is now awaiting a decision from Suffolk County Council), it would produce an ‘enormous’ amount of extra traffic on the A1307.

He also said that the access road to the plant – less than four miles from Haverhill - would be off the single carriageway section of the A1307 between Horseheath and Linton, which he felt would ‘create enormous risk’ as it would see slow moving traffic trying to join the road.

“I think the location makes it a more appropriate site for this type of development (than the Acorn one) but the problem is again, the issue of the major trunk road that is going to seriously affect our town,” he added.

Councillors were told that the deliveries of farm waste to the plants, which would be digested to produce the biogas, would result in about 80 to 90 extra vehicles per day using the A1307.

Cllr Pat Hanlon, who chairs the working party, said that Cambridgeshire County Council’s Highways authority has requested more information about the site access before any decision could be made.

Cllr Dave Smith said: “I think it is a huge problem, the access onto the A1307. I think it is going to be extremely dangerous.”

Cllr Tony Brown said: “The accumulative impact of having two of these plants on the A1307 is going to be huge.

“They are putting a dedicated road up to the Streetly End application site off the A1307, that’s in a 50mph zone.

“Traffic is turning right out of that entrance and has got to cross a busy main road and a lot of those are going to be tractors, so anything turning right has got to cross a stream of traffic coming from the right and then obviously that road is busy with people coming from Haverhill or Horseheath way, so you’ve got to cut across a busy carriageway and then on to the other side of the road, so that’s got major issues.

“Cambridgeshire County Council has asked for more information and I think we should be asking for more information and I propose an objection on the grounds of the A1307 and the entrance.”

Cllr Roger André also pointed out that the planning documents contain a water risk assessment that “clearly identifies a risk of leakage of liquid digestate”.

He added: “This plant particularly is having underground storage tankers, which increases the risk of unused digestate getting into the water table and it also identifies a risk to the lagoon, where the digestate liquid is stored before its pumped to the underground storage and it has a risk of overflowing and causing problems in the water courses in the area.”