Villagers urged to attend meeting in bid to stop anaerobic digester being built in Wimblington

Fengrain in Wimblington who want an AD plant (Image: Archant)

Villagers are being urged to come along to show support for the say no campaign after Fengrain decided to appeal its second planning application which was refused by Fenland District Council.

Campaigner Angela Johnson said; “It is being held to inform the local residents about the appeal that Fengrain have put forward in reference to the refusal of their second application.

“It is to help local residents and the local community put forward relevant concerns and objections to the Inspectorate’s representative.

“This is our last ditch at getting this anaerobic digester put to bed, hopefully,” she said.

Fengrain is anxious to build a digester at Wimblington and despite the planning committee of Fenland Council rejecting their second recent application and the Government’s planning inspector rejecting their first application, they are set to appeal it.

Papers have been lodged with the Planning Inspectorate with only weeks to go before the deadline expire.

Councillor Dave Connor fought to stop the digester and promised the village “is ready” to oppose the application at any future hearing.

At one planning meeting Fengrain director Paul Randle took exception to a protester’s description of the anaerobic digester as “concrete cash cows”.

He said: “We vehemently refute the rhetoric and scare mongering of some of the comments as Fengrain cannot have such environment as ‘concrete cash cows feed, waste and urine’ on or near the site.

“Fengrain aerates all its grain through aeration systems and cannot have any detrimental odours that may affect the smell or visual of the grain and such a situation would never have received acceptance from the planners initially.”

• The public meeting is at the village hall in Addison Road on Monday July 11 at 7pm.