Comment for planning application SCC/0045/23SE

The White Horse Inn Hollow Hill Withersfield, CB9 7SH

Dear Sir I am writing to object to planning application SCC/0045/23SE for the construction and operation of an anaerobic digestion facility, associated infrastructure and new access road, connecting pipeline and covered digestate lagoons by Acorn Bioenergy Limited and the Thurlow Estate. My family are the licensees of the White Horse pub in Withersfield. It therefore serves to provide income for not just my husband and I but also our daughters too, in addition to providing jobs for many local people. Our property and businesses is likely to be one of the most affected by this proposal and thus I ask that you treat my objection with due respect. Having found a way through the Covid epidemic we have worked hard to rebuild the business ever since. The White Horse is the only 'local' in Withersfield and it also serves further communities where they've lost their pubs over recent years. We also serve a significant number of people from Haverhill, who come to the White Horse specifically to enjoy its country location. Attached to the pub we also run a small B&B with 5 rooms, from which we generate from walkers and people seeking a rural retreat or visiting the local area. Finally, we also generate income from events we run during the summer months, held in our large beer garden, with views out over the countryside, which can also accommodate a marquee when required. We also generate income through our B&B. We are, therefore, terrified at the prospect of a huge industrial waste treatment plant being built and operated only a few hundred yards from our historic pub. There are three primary reasons for our objection, plus numerous others that should also be given consideration. The first is the impact of odour. Our property is situated almost next door to this proposed plant at the eastern end of Withersfield, opposite the corner of Skippers Lane and next door to the current farm access road. Whether from the process of bio-digestion or just from the piles of feedstock and pools of digestate that will be sitting on site, the impact of odour cannot be taken lightly, despite what is claimed by Acorn (a company that has never run an AD plant or anything similar!). You only need to look at all the reports of residents living near other AD plants across the country to understand that the smell will have a direct and significant impact on our livelihoods. No-one wants to sit with friends or family and have a drink or eat a meal surrounded by the odour of decomposing material. No one wants to hold a wedding or christening (a common event at the pub) in an environment that smells. Further, who picks to stay in a room in a location that smells? The smell alone could be the end of our business. It will not take long before the news of the 'smelly pub' travels and it will only take a few cancelled events and a few negative reviews and out business is sunk. Then there is the issue of traffic. We have read through details of the proposal and the only information we can find speaks of the HGV traffic along the A1307. There is mention of farm vehicles using farm tracks but the details of which farm tracks and the volume of such vehicles has been completely ignored. Even if farm tracks are utilised, they must cross public roads at some point and with the plant in the proposed location that will most likely be right next to our pub or at best a couple of hundred yards from it. We cannot overlook the recent application by the Thurlow estate to create a new double access point in the field directly next to our pub, off Silver Street. For decades they have never had an issue accessing the fields behind the pub yet now they suddenly require a larger access point for 'farming purposes' right next to the location of the proposed plant? It doesn't take a scientist to work out why. There is no doubt that the noise and pollution from the daily vehicles transporting silage to the plant will directly impact not just our business, but the entire community. The White Horse is one of the last community assets in the village and this proposal threatens its very existence. The increased traffic volume raises many safety issues too. There are no footpaths along the roads to the pub (aside from a small section of path that ceases before it reaches the edge of the main village) meaning a considerable proportion of our clientele walk along roads to get to us, especially during the warmer months, when the volume of vehicles carrying silage to the plant will be greatest. We are already plagued by traffic issues during harvest, when the constant flow of grain trucks and harvesters reek havoc around the entrance to the pub on the corner of Silver St and Skippers Lane and down Church Street into the heart of the village. This currently only occurs for a few weeks each summer. However, if this proposal goes ahead we will be inundated with HGV and farm vehicle movements throughout the entire summer, as the estate harvests all of its 16,000 acres and sends all its silage by our pub to the Bio-digester. The proposal also states that during the harvest this could be 24 hours a day. This essentially means HGV's driving directly past and alongside the pub and its B&B rooms 24 hrs a day for the entire summer period, or longer. Which brings us to the topic of noise. As a venue we are and have had to remain conscious of our neighbours and we work hard to ensure that noise from our business is minimised to allow our community a decent quality of life. It cannot be over looked that any vehicles approaching the plant from the north (which is almost all of it) will be forced to accelerate as they navigate the hill that separates Withersfield and Silver St from the proposed site. Acorn have stated that the terms 'farm vehicles' includes full sized HGVs and grain lorries in addition to tractors and other vehicles. These will all make considerable noise when towing full trailers and even more noise accelerating up a hill and when making gear changes to cope. This will be almost constant during the entire harvest season affecting noy just our guests but everyone in the local community. It will spoil the very nature of the countryside. There are many further reasons this development should not be permitted to go ahead. The scale of it and the impact it will have as people arrive at Haverhill will be terrible. The constant lorries clogging the Spirit of Enterprise roundabout and the effect on traffic between Haverhill and Cambridge cannot be overlooked. Even Haverhill's own Vision 2031 makes clear that the entrance to Haverhill should be improved and that the green belt should be maintained and preserved. Then there is the flooding risk and the fact that the site sits on a flood risk zone 3 site. A site that proposes housing decomposing matter and digestate that could wash into the Stour Brook and the surrounding marshlands. And finally, there is the view and visual impact. A significant number of our guests walk to the pub along the public footpath between Haverhill and Withersfield. The same path is used by hikers and dog walkers and everyone of these people celebrate the beautiful views of the countryside as they make their journey. To suggest that a few newly planted screening trees will hide a development of this scale, with 5 16.5m high tanks taller than the Epicentre itself, is just ludicrous. I therefore ask, on behalf of my family, our business, our clientele and all our neighbours and the greater community that you reject this proposal and further, prevent it from ever being considered again. Yours Sincerely Tracy Collingwood The White Horse Pub, Withersfield