Biodigester Public Meeting

MINUTES OF THE PUBLIC MEETING

HELD ON THURSDAY 15TH JUNE 2023

IN GRIMOLDBY VILLAGE HALL FROM 6.30PM

TO DISCUSS THE BIODIGESTER PLANNING APPLICATION

PROPOSED FOR MANBY AIRFIELD

Chairman: Councillor T. Knowles

The meeting opened and Cllr. Knowles welcomed those present.  He explained that Manby BGE would leave at about 8pm and that that would leave a little time for those remaining to discuss things.  He introduced Mr. Tony Ennis who was the Chairman of Manby BGE Ltd and James Dorman who was the CEO.  He explained that the meeting was being recorded.  He then went on to introduce Cllr. McNally, the County Councillor for LCC, Ant Bunting the Chairman of the Parish Council Planning Committee and Chris Fairburn, Vice Chairman of the Parish Council. 

Tony Ennis began by saying he would try to put things into perspective, introduce the facility, what they’re doing, why and what effect it would have on the local economy.  Firstly, he explained that he and James were directors of Manby BGE but also the 20/50 Group who are specialists in Energy.  He reported that they were supported by Europe’s biggest biomethane investors.  They have 30 facilities internationally.  Mr. Ennis had worked in the energy sector his whole life.  He was committed to energy technology, things that promote better air quality or stop wasteful practices or promote better practices in agriculture.  He said they try to work hand in hand with communities towards cleaner more efficient energy and also energy reduction costs which brings energy security.  He posed the question “Why have a biomethane plant?”  He explained that when we drive our cars they emit exhaust fumes which contain greenhouse gases but in particular particulates.  This is one of the reasons why they are working towards cleaner fuels.  He said in our fields you would find straw and manure and this takes quite some time to aerobically break down.  When it breaks down it breaks down into CO2 and other gasses.  This is such a big problem that two years ago the Government and other countries signed a contract to try to reduce methane.  One molecule of CO2 has 1gwp (one global warming potential) but one molecule of methane has 85gwp.  There is now a national policy on this.  Manby BGE are proposing anaerobic digestion, which just means without air or oxygen.  The main product they are going to be using is straw.  There will also be manure from cattle which will come from the cattle yard that is literally right beside the plant.  They will also take chicken manure which will arrive in lorries.  Nothing will be stored outdoors.  Everything will be processed very quickly.  The waste is broken down into 3 things.  Biomethane which will go directly into the National Grid.  They will also capture food grade CO2 (about 55,000 tonnes).  Finally, the leftover product will be turned into a bioorganic fertiliser and that will be given back to the farmers to help them grow the next crop.  All these things are of immense benefit to the environment.  The biomethane would be used by heavy goods vehicles as diesel is gradually phased out.  This would reduce greenhouse gas produced by lorries by approx. 95%.  He stated that the cost to build the facility was £175m which will bring jobs and would pay farmers £14m per year for their waste products and would reduce the cost of fertiliser.  It would create 100 permanent jobs in Manby which he thought equated to roughly £5m per year.  When looking for employees he believed there would be 50 white collar and 50 blue collar workers needed.  These people would need houses and they would spend their money in the village.  He said the plant wanted to be good neighbours as they planned on having the plant there for a long time.

Cllr. Knowles opened the floor to the public:

A gentleman asked how much the plant would devalue houses in the area.  Mr. Ennis did not believe it would.

A lady objected to the lorries that would travel through the village all day.  She wondered who would want to live near a muck farm.  Mr. Ennis understood that the lorries were a concern for residents.  He said they had done some research and recorded a week day average of 5781 vehicle movements.  7% of which were HGV’s.  He explained that Manby BGE anticipated 124 truck movements by their lorries which he believed was a little over 2% of all of the vehicles that would be using the B1200.  90% of which would be turning into the airfield before they got to Manby.  He stated that the capacity for the B1200 was 20,000 vehicle movements per day.  He said there was no reason to consider that their increase in traffic would have implications on capacity or road safety.  He believed it had been demonstrated that the roundabout at the junction of the A157 and B1200 would continue to operate well within capacity. 

A gentleman spoke about houses and wondered if Cllr. Fairburn as a developer supported the proposed biodigester plans.  Cllr. Fairburn confirmed that he didn’t back the proposals. 

A gentleman spoke about HGV movements and it was confirmed that 7% of the 5781 vehicle movements recorded on the B1200 were HGV’s.  Which Mr. Ennis believed equated to 400 movements, presumably made by 200 lorries (2 movements per lorry) and Manby BGE would be adding 124 movements.  One movement in and one movement out.  Made by 62 vehicles.  He confirmed that Manby BGE didn’t do the survey, independent consultants did. 

A lady asked what their future plan for traffic was.  Would the business get bigger and so the traffic would increase further.  Mr. Ennis, confirmed that the plant was designed to be a certain size.  It would be fed by mainly straw and it was not feasible to bring straw in from any further than 30 to a maximum of 50 miles away.  So it was not likely to increase in size.

A lady asked if the lorries would be restricted to certain times.  Mr. Ennis confirmed that they would like to restrict lorry movements to between 6am and midnight. 

A gentleman asked if the vehicles going through the village would be covered.  Mr. Dormer said that no open vehicles would come through the village.

A gentleman asked if the plant would be sold on in the future and if that were to happen what guarantees did the village have from the new owners.  The gentleman was certain that both men had sold on several other businesses.  They confirmed that they had been directors of many other businesses and had sold on one or so each but that they were not looking to sell this facility on they were in it for the long haul. 

A lady asked why they were not putting the plant on Louth Industrial Estate where there was close access to the fire brigade etc.  Mr. Ennis confirmed that they had looked at the Industrial Estate and other surrounding areas as potential sites but they were not large enough/suitable.  In terms of being close to the fire brigade that was not important as the plant was anaerobic.

A gentleman asked if they had built one of these before.  It was confirmed that they had.

A lady asked if either of the gentleman lived in a town or village close to one of these plants.  Mr. Ennis lived 2km from one.  He said there was no smell.  Mr. Dormer said that all of their buildings were operated at negative pressure.  They were constantly sucking air out of the building and all of that air would go through a treatment process.  When the doors had to open double the amount of fans were switched on so that no smell escaped.  Mr. Ennis said that various air quality reports had been done, and it was predicted that odour levels would rarely be detectable.  Noise from fans would be equivalent to a car if standing 10m from the building. 

A gentleman asked if the roads would be changed at all.  Mr. Dormer said there was a requirement to widen the entrance to the site by a few metres so that two HGV’s could pass easily.   

A lady confirmed that the manure would be coming from the farm on the airfield already.  But other farms had also been asked to supply.  However, they would not have biomethane vehicles and they would not sheet their lorries and their lorries would come through the village.  Mr. Ennis confirmed that other farmers had been told that they could make their material available to them and if they wanted to do that Manby BGE would collect it from them.  The lady asked if all of the vehicles would be covered.  Manby BGE said that lorries carrying straw would not be covered.  Muck would be.  The lady was concerned that her small local cattle farm would not be able to source straw for their farm because Manby BGE would be taking it all.  Mr. Dormer said they would give them straw.  The lady did not believe that there would be little new HGV traffic passing through the village to the site.  She was aware that there was a lot of supply on the other side of the village.

A gentleman asked if Manby BGE had the routes that would be used drawn out.  They did not.

A gentleman pointed out that if straw was to be brought in from 30 miles away it would not just be Manby that would be affected.

A gentleman asked if the finance for the site was in place.  Mr. Ennis confirmed it was subject to the planning permission and was coming from a number of private funds and investors. 

A gentleman asked, if the plans were approved were there any plans to invest back into the village.  Mr. Ennis confirmed a working group would be formed to look at that.

A gentleman asked where the straw was going to be stored.  It was confirmed it would be stored on the farms.

A gentleman asked if Manby BGE were aware of evacuation processes.  They were not.

A gentleman had noticed that no traffic survey had been done on Tinkle Street or Carlton Road.  Manby BGE said this was because they did not anticipate any traffic at all on these roads.  They confirmed that any vehicles delivering straw or manure would be their vehicles which meant they could control which roads they used.  90% of that traffic would not be coming through the village as it was coming from the opposite direction.  10% was unknown.  They had not considered the traffic situation on Tinkle Street e.g, parked cars and children being dropped off at school.  Mr. Dormer advised that observations about traffic concerns should be made to LCC who could ensure restrictions were placed on Manby BGE.
 

 A lady asked how many farms there were in the 30 mile radius that would supply waste.  Manby BGE confirmed that they knew where 90% of their supply was coming from and it was not coming through the village.

A man asked what would direct their vehicles.  Sat Navs did direct traffic along the back roads as it was considered faster.  Manby BGE confirmed that there would be an employed transport manager who would be controlling traffic.

A gentleman asked what would happen if the road was being dug up? 

A gentleman said over a period of 6 days there would be 734 HGV vehicle movements according to their figures.  Which was a lot of movements.  He did not believe that the B1200 would be able to take it. 

A gentleman asked what other filtration systems would be used.  Manby BGE confirmed two: Ultrasonic light and carbon filters.  Trucks would bring the waste in and would leave containing sealed bags containing fertiliser for the farms.

A gentleman asked what kind of percentage increase in HGV’s would occur.  It was thought about 20%.

A gentleman asked, if something was to go wrong, was there a set area that would need evacuating.  Manby BGE said that only the site and not the village would be affected.  Mr. Ennis said that as the site was an anaerobic digester there was no air in it which meant that fires would not happen.  The fertiliser was not flammable and the plant was collecting a natural fire suppressant in the system anyway in the form of CO2.

A gentleman asked if there was only going to be 60 lorries per day coming to the site why were the operating times 18 hours apart.  Manby BGE said that they would like to stagger vehicle movements so that not all vehicles were leaving the site at 6am.

A gentleman asked, if there was a leak of gasses what would happen?  Would it be burned off?  Manby BGE confirmed it would not.  Standard procedure would be to have an independent expert come in once a month to check the site for such things.  Methane as a gas would disperse itself very very quickly.

A gentlman asked what the village would gain by having the plant.  Manby BGE said there was 100 jobs, 100 people who would need to eat, drink coffee, go to the shop. 

A gentleman asked if they could guarantee that the plant wouldn’t produce hydrogen sulphide.  Manby BGE said it would produce about 1% of that but those kinds of gasses would be scrubbed out in the filtration process.  It would not be able to escape.

A lady asked if the plant would have a flare stack and if so how often would it be used.  Manbe BGE said it would have one because that was a legal requirement but it would only be used in an emergency.

A gentleman wondered how much light pollution from the plant would affect nearby houses.  Manby BGE confirmed that the plant would work 24 hours a day.  Lighting would mostly be low level.  High level lighting, which was required for Health and Safety, was actually designed in such a way as to protect bats.

A lady was concerned about the welfare of the cattle next door.  She wondered what would be done to make the process less stressful for them.  Manby BGE confirmed that they were not on their land and the plant would be well screened and distanced from them.

A gentleman wondered if the lorries would be spreading bacteria between farms because they weren’t going to be cleaned down.  Manby BGE said that the lorries would be visiting clean areas.  Any manure would be on the inside of the truck.  The outside of the truck would not get dirty.  As the cattle manure was only coming from two locations the risk of spreading disease was very low.

Manby BGE confirmed that planning permission was a first stage, they would also need a licence from the Environment Agency to operate and if there was an incidence of odour escape the Environment Agency would investigate immediately.

A lady asked how the manure odour would be sealed inside a truck.  Manby BGE explained that the lorries would be of solid plank design, door rubber sealed.  Planks on bottom of truck would move to release manure.  They would have a roll over cover which would be supported at the back and front by a full width aluminium plate and a number of bars to keep it taught.  When the cover came over the side, it would be strapped down and the cover and the aluminium rim meet to keep the odours inside.  If there was a defective cover and some air was able to get in there might be some odour.  Vehicles would be tested annually though.

At approximately 8pm Manby BGE representatives left the meeting and Cllr. Knowles confirmed for those present that the Parish Council would be consulted again as would ELDC.  He saw his role as a Cllr. to put the views of the residents across.  Cllr. Knowles had spoken to ELDC and had made sure that they would not comment before they were aware of the residents of Grimoldby and Manby’s thoughts.  Cllr. McNally confirmed that ultimately, LCC would make the decision on the application and that usually such LCC planning meetings took place in Lincoln but there was the possibility that it could be arranged for a location closer if issues were deemed contentious.  A gentleman said that in his opinion ELDC had let the residents down on the chicken farm.  Were there any guarantees that that wouldn’t happen again?  Cllr. Knowles confirmed that there were not.  He was of the opinion that Manby BGE would have spent a considerable amount of money putting the application together and the fact that they had submitted it meant that they were probably pretty sure that it would be passed.  If it was not, he envisaged that they would appeal. 

A vote was taken and those present were unanimous in their objection.

One member of the public thought that the village should be coming up with conditions that they would like to see imposed.  Another said, conditions implied that it would be passed.  The village didn’t want it.  It was agreed that residents would email their views and comments to Cllr. McNally: CllrD.McNally@lincolnshire.gov.uk so that there could be one statement of consolidated views put forward by the LCC representative for the area.  Cllr. McNally confirmed that that was ok and he assured that he and Cllr. Knowles would be working together to ensure that LCC received a strong, coherent, consolidated objection.  Cllr. McNally confirmed he would compile a response and he would make that public so that residents could comment before the meeting.  He reminded that he would only get 5 minutes to speak.

Cllr. Knowles thanked everyone for their attendance.

The meeting closed at approximately 8.28pm.