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BCBP Welcomes Outcome of Bishop's Castle Biomass Power Plant Planning Inquiry- 04/09/2009
Bishop’s Castle Biomass Power Limited (BCBP) has welcomed the Planning Inspector’s decision to grant it planning permission to build and operate a biomass power plant in Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire, following an eight day Public Inquiry, held in March and April 2009.
The new combined heat and power plant, fuelled by locally sourced wood chips and wood-energy crops, will generate 2.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply 2,500 houses in Bishop’s Castle and surrounding villages. Wood pellets will also be produced using heat from the plant to provide low carbon fuel for domestic and business premises. Based on the town’s Crowgate Industrial Estate, it will also offer a large reduction in heating costs to the nearby Community College, leisure centre, church and other neighbouring businesses. In total it will save carbon dioxide emissions of approximately 7,000 tonnes per year, and provide a robust power supply for the area.
According to government estimates, the construction and operation of the plant could support up to 25 jobs in the area, as well as providing an on-going and timely boost for the local economy.
A spokesman for the consortium of local farmers who are behind BCBP said: “The new power plant will help provide jobs for people in the town and on the surrounding land, and is of vital importance to help farmers, land owners and other local businesses diversify in order to survive and thrive in these difficult times.
“We are very mindful of the concerns of local residents and hope that we can work together with them in the future to allay these. The Inspector has imposed tight operating conditions on the new plant which will be closely monitored by Shropshire Council.”
Solicitor-Advocate Niall Blackie, Partner and Head of Planning at Midlands law firm FBC Manby Bowdler, represented BCBP at the Planning Inquiry.
He said: “We are grateful to the Inspector for the care which he took in ensuring that all the issues that people had raised were fully discussed before him and we are pleased that he came to the conclusion that the impact on the countryside would not be unacceptable.
“The Inspector has established an important principle that for plants of this size, the emissions can be effectively controlled through the planning conditions which we had been advocating throughout the application, to ensure that the environment will be protected.”
Mr Blackie, who is based is FBC Manby Bowdler’s Telford office, continued: “His finding that the technology is viable and that it met with the objectives of government guidance on renewable energy is one that I had advanced strongly in our submissions at the inquiry and which the applicants had based their case on in the discussions leading to the application.
“It is a shame that an application made in March 2008, and which is so important to the country's strategy for dealing with carbon emission reduction should take so long to consider, but the analysis of the balance of factors which the inspector has completed is to be welcomed and will be a benchmark for future work in this field.
“Everyone who is interested in this project, and particularly those who were so keen on having an inquiry at great public expense, should take the trouble to read the inspector's report very carefully.”
The Planning Inspector’s Appeal Decision can be accessed via the government planning portal – www.planningportal.gov.uk and searching the case number 2086011.