£36m Fearn biogas proposal branded ‘disastrous’ by campaigners amid petition push
CONCERNS about the integrity of a planning appeal process surrounding a highly controversial £36m Easter Ross biogas proposal have been raised.
Acorn Energy says the plant it wants to build on land 350M south Of Fearn Aerodrome near Fearn would generate enough biomethane to heat around 8000 UK homes or fuel 270 HGVs a year.
It claims that would equate to saving 33,520 tonnes of CO2, against standard UK grid emissions - comparable to taking 22,000 cars off the road or planting 1.3 million trees.
And it says that as part of the anaerobic digestion process, Acorn will capture, upgrade and liquify all CO2 which can then be sold to businesses for industrial use.
But Highland Council rejected the application in November last year with an unacceptable risk to aviation safety amongst the reasons cited.
Concerns were also raised over the plant's use of vent flares to burn excess biogas and its proximity to distillery warehouses and a micro-distillery nearby.
Community groups flagged concerns about the potentially “explosive” nature of the plant, road infrastructure and traffic management, claiming the network around Fearn and Balintore is not capable or fit for purpose to cope with many extra HGV movements each month.
Acorn Energy lodged an appeal in December of last year and was then told this March that it would need to include an environmental impact assessment - something opponents had insisted should have been demanded in the first place.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a tool used to assess the significant effects of a project or development proposal on the environment.
EIAs make sure that project decision makers think about the likely effects on the environment at the earliest possible time and aim to avoid, reduce or offset those effects. This ensures that proposals are understood properly before decisions are made.
A scoping report has been produced for Acorn by Mabbett & Associates and submitted to Highland Council as part of the appeal process.
However, Hilton-based Sandra Skinner has cast doubt over the integrity of the process.
She wrote: “I understand one aim of the Community Empowerment Act 2015 is to give communities more rights and influence. Considering the strength of local objection to Acorn Bioenergy anaerobic digester plant, it is difficult to see how this aim can be realised while faced with the Scottish Government Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) process.
“It is standard practice within the DPEA process, for the ‘Appellant’ (in this case Acorn Bioenergy) to both ‘select’ and ‘pay’ the consultant(s) to prepare the Scoping Report and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
“It is difficult to imagine the integrity of any resultant report, particularly one used to influence the decision-making process, will not be open to criticism, or worse!
“Back in 2018, An Environmental Impact Assessment Review published in Science Direct concluded: ‘Bias is a frequent concern related with EIA; but there is a big difference between stakeholders' bias, which is unavoidable and due to different interests and expertise, and manipulation, an unacceptable bias to defend hidden or spurious interests.
“The literature on EIA frequently used the term bias, and more rarely manipulation or corruption, but tend to associate it with developers, or EIA consultants (by pressures from developers), while the public is considered to bring objectivity.’
“It’s difficult to perceive how local communities can be protected against such ‘manipulation’ within the current DPEA process.
“The Scottish Government Appeal Process should not only be fair, impartial and transparent, it should be seen to be fair, impartial and transparent – sadly, the current process appears to be neither!”
A peitition, Stop the Gas Plant, calls the scheme “disastrous” and “benefiting the few (international investors, local land-owner and multinational distillery) on the back of the many, while caring little for the extensive economic/ environmental damage reaped upon our wider community and small businesses”.
It points out: “Even more damaging is the flawed strategy of shifting vast swaths of arable land from food production to gas production amidst an apparent food and cost-of living crisis.”
It states: “This development would deliver a highly explosive plant adjacent to a small local distillery, a training airfield and in close proximity to industrial scale (60,670 tonne) distilled spirit storage units - what could the consequences be should an Oxfordshire type explosion occur with the closest emergency response being close to an hour away?”
It wants the Scottish Government Reporter to instruct a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
A spokesman for Acorn Bioenergy said: “We are currently in the middle of the appeal process following the appointment of the Scottish Government Reporter.
“The Reporter is asking a number of questions in relation to the plans for the Fearn site, which Acorn is responding to fully.
“We are confident that the Reporter will reach their own conclusion based on the information in front of them.”
