Comment for planning application SCC/0045/23SE

Parkwood Hanchett End CB9 7RP

Hello As a local resident (one of the closest to the proposed site) I find myself in the unenviable position of being one of very few supporters of this plan. I take comfort from the knowledge that being alone doesn't make me wrong. I have engaged with detractors over the past two years and believe that all the objections of my fellow residents, howsoever expressed, hide behind the NIMBY philosophy and a certain fear of change and the unknown. My position is this. If Acorn can convince you, the planning authority, that they can meet all the regulatory standards in terms of the building and running of the site, then they should be allowed to do so. I hope you will weigh up the imperative we have to do what we can to tackle the climate crisis when making your decision. I hope your professional judgement is not swayed by the clamor of dissenting voices. We are entering a new age of human created climate catastrophe. We have emitted, and continue to emit, far too much carbon into the atmosphere. Our only chance of leaving a habitable planet for our descendants is to stop emitting carbon. This objective should be of paramount importance in our minds. Sadly though, because we live in a part of the world well shielded from these disastrous effects, it is very easy for our local residents to ignore what is happening all around. Doing so doesn't mean we are immune. It only means these problems, largely, haven't reached us yet. They surely will. This proposed plant is a small step to help mitigate our negative effects on the planet. It will take in waste products, put them to good use, create a useful by-product and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. Animal waste (slurry) is a problem for our industrial animal agricultural industry. Often it is spread raw onto arable fields as a 'fertilizer'. A well understood consequence is run-off into water courses. A serious continual threat to our rivers. It must be far better to use this waste to produce bio-methane, which we can use to offset our use of fossil fuels. The fibrous by-product (digestate) will be used as a soil improver on local fields, binding the soil, enriching it, reducing run-off and reducing the need to import artificial fertilizers from as far away as Ukraine. I understand there are more than 700 AD plants across the UK. Aside from the one, well publicized, lighting strike in Oxfordshire, I am not aware of a huge concern as to their safety of negative effects on local communities. A good resource about AD plates id here: Anaerobic Digestion | The Official Information Portal on Anaerobic Digestion. I appreciate you will be aware of this. Other readers, via the planning portal, may not be. The Muck-Off campaign, against this development, is well organized and funded. Someone in their midst has sufficient wealth to own the stip of land opposite the Flying Shuttle, and to have no other use for it than to promote their own propaganda. In my discussions with your department I have learned that the structures and banners in place on this land and nearby have no planning consent. These items are a blight on the approach to our town. I argue they are a bigger cause of harm to our reputation, with the scaremongering and disinformation they contain, than the plant, once running, will ever be. I truly wish you would take action to have these structures removed. Bad blood between adjacent land owners does seen to have played a part in the organized campaign group's origins.