Hi All

Just a quick reminder that the Fourstones AD appeal hearing is happening tomorrow at

10am Newbrough Town Hall, 

As I said before, there may seem little point in attending if we can’t speak, heckle, applaud or boo but just being there will be a vote against the proposal and will show our support for what remains of planning democracy.

To get some idea of how large this supposed farm-scale plant is it's worth looking at this pompous video by Iona Capital (known associates of JFS Biogas and Prism planning, (it is a multi-million pound business!)) of Keithic Biogas in Perthshire which is a gas to grid rather than a CHP electricity generator but this plant is half the size of what's proposed at Whinney Hill which will have six tanks, eight silage clamps and two massive deafening chp generators working 24 hours a day seven days a week.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLaylsYcXZ0

(I love the smell of hydrogen sulfide in the morning).

You may also be interested to see what happens when things go wrong, as they frequently do. In the Anaerobic Diges­tion Strategy and Action Plan Annual Report 2014, “.... the number of serious or potentially serious pollu­tion incidents at AD plants remains a serious concern...Recorded incidents increased from 0 in 2010 to 21 for every 100 permits in 2012.."

These are pictures from an accident that happened last month at Crouchlands Farm near Plaistow that destroyed a kilometre of waterways where digestate had to be scraped out of streams with diggers seriously damaging the whole ecosystem. The stream that leads from the bottom of the field below the Whinney Hill site could be similarly affected leading to the destruction of North Tyne aquatic habitats. 

http://www.pore.org.uk/news/2015/6/24/councillors-vote-for-crouchland-farm-enforcement-action-and-pollution-update

There are even more horiffic pictures on Pore's facebook page https://www.facebook.com/poreorg/photos/pcb.1614821485424457/1614820758757863/?type=1&theater

Hope to see you all tomorrow, I'll be the scruffy guy in black mumbling incoherently, fortunately the other speakers are really good.

Last chance to object today. https://acp.planningportal.gov.uk/ViewCase.aspx?Caseid=3001690&CoID=0

Hope you manage to submit something a little more effective than the incoherent twaddle/rant that I came up with.

If you objected to the proposed Fourstones Anaerobic Digester plant you should have received a letter from the planning inspectorate about the appeal, I know some people have not . Despite clearly not being approved by the planning committee, being nearly unanimously voted against and attracting hundreds of objections we now have to grind through the appeal process. Unfortunately the appeal system has all the rigour and transparency of a kangaroo court. Greater emphasis is placed on the intentionally vague and ill defined National Planning Policy Framework and will be a relatively ‘informal’ hearing resulting in a report which judging by others on the website will consist of the inspector pontificating wildly and repeating the phrase, “in my opinion” with little evidence to back it up but maybe I am being too cynical.

Martin Goodall (a solicitor specialising in planning law) has produced a wonderful one page guide to objecting which stresses the importance of writing letters of objection for the appeal, “Although the inspector will see letters sent to the council in response to the initial planning application, IT IS GENERALLY ADVISABLE TO WRITE AGAIN TO THE PLANNING INSPECTORATE.” The guidelines for writing letters on his blog page are still very relevant   http://planninglawblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/how-to-object.html and it would be great if you could reinforce the points made in your earlier letter(s) with even greater emphasis and preferably some new insights. I spoke to Joe Nugent (the NCC planning case officer) this morning who hopes the new planning appeal documents will be on the Northumberland Planning portal website herehttp://publicaccess.northumberland.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=N832TTQSL3L00  this afternoon or as soon as possible (the planning department is massively understaffed,  underfunded and under siege by people who think that planning democracy is all a bit tedious and irrelevant).

If you have the time and patience it would be great if you could demolish their arguments using the NPPF https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework--2  and the local plan which is on the Northumberland County Council website here http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=291  it is also worth reading   https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anaerobic-digestion-strategy-and-action-plan   and interestingly the anaerobic digestion annual report 2013 -14  published last month notes, ” the number of serious or potentially serious pollution incidents at AD plants remains a serious concern. EA data show that the biowaste treatment sector, particularly AD, had proportionately more serious and significant pollution incidents than the other waste treatment sectors regulated by the EA”. 

It is hoped that a meeting will be arranged in the next couple of weeks organised by those wonderful people at Warden Parish Council for some hard core objectors who can hammer out a list of planning issues and strategies  that can be highlighted in  letters and at the hearing.  I or someone will try to circulate a list as soon as possible.

The deadline for objections is the 27^th March 2015 and you can submit yours here https://acp.planningportal.gov.uk/ViewCase.aspx?Caseid=3001690&CoID=0 which is very similar to the Northumberland site in that you have to register first. You can object in writing and the instructions are in this pdf  http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/pins/taking-part_planning-hearing.pdf which also gives general information about the whole appeal process.

The application was pulled from the agenda of the 2^nd December meeting of the planning committee at the very last minute. I wrote to Joe Nugent (planning officer) for clarification and his reply was, “In terms of the application being withdrawn from the committee agenda this is due to additional information being submitted by the applicant. This additional information requires full consideration by the Council prior to the application be (sic) presented at the committee.”

It seems that we are now in that dark period where meetings are held behind closed doors, compromises are made (a different shade of green paint, slates on the tank roofs, playground facilities, promises to never use domestic food waste or energy crops, promises easily made but hard to keep) although the plans just put up on the website show that the drying shed has been axed. This does make the location of the site even more stupid as there is now presumably no use for the copious amounts of heat produced by the CHP. Hint: that’s why it’s a good idea to have a small AD plant beside your farm building and losing the shed doesn’t make it any less of an eyesore.

I have been assured that the changes will probably not affect the recommendation for refusal in the planning report which is still available at http://committees.northumberland.gov.uk/aksnorthumberland/images/att19783.pdf  but it will be rewritten. Assuming that the first possible available planning meeting will be on January the 6^th, 2015, we now have only two inputs into the process, the deadline for more objections was extended by 14 days and there is the five minute opposition speech allowed in the meeting, which is being organised by Warden Parish Council.

I am a natural optimist but there is big money to made by this development. £80,000 a month clear profit  at the Silloth plant that probably has higher costs as Duncan Findlay (an engineer and a rigorous , disciplined manager)  is  doing the job properly.  The applicants are likely to make millions from the overly generous feed in tariff and they will not give up without a fight. They will almost certainly put up a very strong  and  ‘professional’  defence. I suspect they will roll out strong arm tactics as Prism depends for its consultancy reputation on aggressively achieving these sorts of planning permissions.

If you have anything to add to the objections, now is the time to do it. If you have anything that you strongly feel should be raised in those precious five minutes at the planning meeting, get in touch with Warden Parish council  http://www.wardenpc.co.uk/WPC.htm  .  I believe Steve Heminsley is dealing with it but the parish clerk, Robert Macfarlane should be able to direct your request to the right  person. If anything surprising happens over the Christmas, New Year period and the application is on the agenda for the 6^th January, it can be discussed  on  the Loomio group here,   https://www.loomio.org/g/InoJQRtV/fourstones-ad-group   It’s a sort of group decision making tool,  still in beta (trial version) but it works really well. Have fun.

This is a quick reminder for all who may be interested that the planning committee meeting for this proposal is happening on the 2nd December in the Council Chamber, County Hall, Morpeth at 6pm. If you have objected you should have received the letter but I know some haven't (have attached a copy). The planning report is here 

with the recommendation that the application should be refused permission. (yippeee!!).

This does not mean that the committee will agree with that recommendation. If you want to attend the meeting that would be great. If you want to add to the objections you can still do so right up until the committee date but obviously the sooner the better here

I understand that Warden Parish Council is organising someone to speak for that precious five minutes mentioned in the letter (isn't democracy wonderful) ably supported by the indefatigable Michael Guthrie who has been amazing in his tireless forensic analysis of the application, and another big-hitter.

Global People's Climate March.

Sunday 21st September, thousands upon thousands around the world marched in the hope that politicians and corporations will get their act together and do something about climate change. Newcastle hosted an enthusiastic crowd with several familiar faces from Hexham but unsurprisingly no members of the Fourstones anaerobic digester scheme. Unsurprisingly as one of those involved is reliably quoted  as saying, "I couldn't give a f#@k about the environment".

Maybe we should really be marching on Northern Power Grid and demanding it back. Unfortunately our dimwitted politicians gave it away for buttons in a frenzy of privitisation back in the nineties and it is now owned by Berkshire Hathaway, a US company that, last time I looked, was worth 50 billion dollars but it is probably far more than that now. Its CEO is Warren Buffett, worth 63 billion dollars, the third richest man in the world, so it's nice to know that part of the reason we are having this Anaerobic Digester dumped on this plot is in order to make him even richer.

Warren Buffet is against distributed generation systems like the Energiewende scheme in Germany. The advantage of a distributed system is that you can develop local microgrids  so that cooperatively owned solar, wind and ad plants (using waste!) can be run by local communities and the heat and power can be used most efficiently, (up to 69% of power can be lost in long distance transmission). If we had that infrastructure we could all be generating power in a low impact and environmentally friendly way but instead we have the imposition of unjustifiably huge AD plants like the one proposed, or the vast wind farm applications like the one threatened for Talladh-a-Bheithe on Rannoch Moor by another land owner/generator syndicate. Where it all goes wrong is when the farmer (at Burmoor Farm near Wark for example) has the great idea of installing a farmscale AD plant on his land and then goes to Northern Power Grid (aka Warren Buffett, the third richest man in the world) only to be told that he has to cough up a couple of million quid to get connected to the grid because Warren doesn't want any competition thank you. The only way to make it happen is to scale up your project and put it right next to an expensively landscaped substation, miles from anyone who could use the heat produced by your CHP unit and forced to use energy crops as feedstock to generate enough return on the investment.

The deadline for objections is now the 4th November but probably best to get it in a few days ahead of the committee meeting so that someone has a chance to read it.

FYI this is the email from Joe Nugent:

Dear Adrian,

Please disregard the date on the website stating 18^th October 2014. This relates to the recent letter confirming the revision of the suffix to RENE and this letter did not afford a further notification period i.e. 21 days.

The 21 days notification period was set by the formal notification letters, site notices and press notice.

However, in terms of letters of objection, support or general representation these can be submitted right up until the application is presented at Committee. This is expected to be 4^th November 2014.

Kind regards,

Joe

Joe Nugent

Senior Planning Officer

Major Projects, Minerals & Waste

Where does it all go wrong?

Harper Adams AD plant explosion, Shropshire.

Where does it all go wrong? A brilliant idea, a small scale anaerobic digester for the farm, 250 KW of electricity and loads of useable heat. Feedstock sourced from farm waste and digestate output returned to the land. No environmental impact, no haulage, and compost pile emissions are immediately sequestered in the digester tank and the farm gets income from the feed in tariff and selling heat to neighbours. Doesn’t have to be farms, distributed generation schemes can use small scale AD/CHP combined with solar and wind renewables run by local cooperatives as happens in Germany, Denmark and many other countries.

Where does it all go wrong? The big energy companies have an enormous monopoly and it is in their interests to maintain business as usual. In Germany, a distributed generation system is possible because they have invested in their national grid so that local power schemes can be close to the point of use. Feed in tariffs benefit local communities and coops and discourage the creation of local fat cat landowners. This is power from the people, millions of people become competitors for the big energy companies, this is local power, this is green.

Where does it all go wrong? The big energy suppliers don’t want competition so instead of local tenant farmers having the infrastructure to run a small scale AD/CHP unit they will tend towards the large, hugely expensive 1 megawatt plant in a totally inappropriate location whose massive carbon footprint due to haulage of non waste energy crops are completely ignored. Heat generated is not used because it is too far from local communities but that’s OK because it is a license to print money for the local fat cats and who knows, maybe some of it will trickle down to the local community but don’t hold your breath.

Where does it all go wrong? This plant will cost roughly five and half to six million quid (possibly grant aided, attracting subsidies, loans guaranteed by government and definitely exploiting the feed in tariff (your taxes)), for that money we could have had five small scale 250 KWe AD/CHP units on local farms where they are most appropriate and can use waste with very low  carbon emissions. So the brilliant idea is hijacked by the parasitic snake oil salesmen who rake off a massive commission for their consultancy using a quite justified fear of climate change to appropriate precious resources. Our Government’s brainless enthusiasm for deregulated capitalism means that infrastructure is not invested in to encourage a distributed power system although they are quite capable of wasting billions on Trident or in bailing out the banks.

Where does it all go wrong? Prism planning consultants, the agents, have now conjured up pseudo scientific reports that prove that their s#@t doesn’t stink and that there will be no noise pollution (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBybq-qTVsI). All these consultants have to come up with the ‘right’ results or they won’t be hired again. Our local authority is forced into allowing the flouting of planning policies, the precious landscape of this area of outstanding natural beauty (which has an economic as well as a spiritual value), leased off to make a fortune for the developers. Private eye magazine has a column called Rotten Boroughs which highlights the abuses of the planning system which reinforces the fact that it is no longer fit for purpose, the whole country has become a collection of rotten boroughs particularly with the malign affect of the National Planning Policy Framework. I don’t blame the planning departments, they are underfunded, bullied, left toothless, stripped of powers and the professional skills needed to regulate the developers. The man fronting Prism (the agents) is an ex planning and environmental health officer  (gamekeeper turned poacher) and other like minded smart operators in the private sector can drive a bulldozer through what remains of planning democracy. The latest manoeuvre to exclude objections is to mysteriously change the planning reference number to make it just that little bit harder to register new objections. The planning reference number is no longer 14/02186/FUL but now 14/02186/RENE, you can use the search keyword Fourstones or try the link http://publicaccess.northumberland.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=N832TTQSL3L00 

... unless they have moved it again, which they probably will as the deadline for receipt of objections is getting closer, 27^th September! Climate change is too important to leave in the hands of speculators, please sign the petition here 

... and attend the Global Peoples Climate March, starts 1330 outside Newcastle Library to the Civic Centre on Sunday 21^st September and other venues world-wide.