Planners are being recommended to flick the switch on a new wood burner, water treatment plant and associated food growing facility close to the A16 north east of Crowland.
Lincolnshire County Council has recommended Sycamore Planning Limited’s application for the biomass power facility at Decoy Farm, off Spalding Road, be approved at the authority’s Planning and Regulation Committee meeting on Monday.
The food growing site would be powered by burning up to 48,000 tonnes of shredded wood a year which, through evaporation, would treat up to 65,000 tonnes of waste water.
The applicant says the new facilities would create eight full time jobs.
The 2.54-hectare site would be enclosed by a 2.4-metre-high green fence while a 25-metre-high flue will serve the burner.
The report to the meeting on behalf of Richard Wills, executive director, environment and economy, states: “Taking into account the location, design and the existing (and proposed) intervening building and landscaping around the site, on balance, the development is not considered likely to give rise to any unacceptable or significant adverse impacts on either the environment or the amenity of local residents.”
On potential environmental impacts the report states that exposure to chemicals including arsenic and nitrogen dioxide is “predicted to be of minor adverse significance” and deems the annual
exposure to pollutant levels as “insignificant”.
The report also states that the wood burner is “unlikely to generate significant odour” but says the waste water treatment plant “does however have the potential to generate odours which may impact beyond the boundary of the site”.
The report recommends several tests are carried out regarding odours and a “complaints procedure” is put in place.
