On 21st April Winchester City Council rejected the planning application (16/00116/FUL) made by Ecotricity to build a “Green Gas” Mill at Sparsholt College:
“The site is located in the countryside and intended to draw on feedstocks from unspecified sites within a 15 km radius. The proposal for the provision of an Anaerobic Digester Plant with the associated traffic movements would result in a type and volume of traffic unsuited to the local rural road network, which will have a harmful effect on the character and nature of the road network. Furthermore, the proposal does not provide details of the route and volume of traffic on the rural road network, which could be harmful to other road users, the quiet enjoyment of the local area and to the safety of residents of any settlements through which it would pass. Accordingly, the proposal is considered contrary to the intentions of saved policies T2, DP3(ii) and DP.11 of the Winchester District Local Plan Review and policies MTRA4, MTRA5, CP.10 and CP.21 of the Winchester District Local Plan Part 1 - Joint Core Strategy 2013.”
Ecotricity issued a press release on the day of the decision saying that it would review the outcome before deciding whether to appeal.
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In July Ecotricity resubmitted its planning application. The closing date for comments has now passed. Details can be found on the planning pages of Winchester City Council website http://planningapps.winchester.gov.uk/online-applications/ reference number 16/01679/FUL.