AN appeal against a decision to reject plans to build a slurry pit near a dale village is to be heard in public.
Plans by AWSM Farms to construct three buildings and a slurry pit at Lane Head Farm, near Hutton Magna, were rejected by Durham County Council last June.
Some 89 people and seven parish councils objected with many people complaining about flies and smells coming from the site. Had it been approved 70,000 tonnes of waste, including manure, from Durham, Cumbria and Teesside would have been brought to the site.
The plan was to generate electricity from the waste through anaerobic digestion and also to produce fertiliser.
Planners rejected the proposal, saying it “would not fulfil an established need and would result in unnecessary importation of waste into County Durham” .
An appeal against the decision was lodged in November.
ELG Planning, acting on behalf of AWSM Farms, said the concern about waste being brought into the county was unfounded because most of it would come from local farms and there would only “occasionally be a requirement to source food waste from further afield” .
The agent added: “The proposed facility will be the first of its kind in the North East and the nearest comparable facilities are located in Selby and Hull, and these existing plants are currently supplying feedstock to anaerobic digestion plants in the local area, including Leeming Biogas and AVG Biogas.”
However, Durham County Council’s head of planning, Stuart Timmiss, said there was no need to provide “additional municipal waste capacity” in Teesdale because a new waste transfer station has been built in Stainton Grove.
He added that the site is an isolated green field and the development would be an inappropriate development.
The appeal hearing is to heard at The Witham, in Barnard Castle, on October 9.
