Campaigners celebrate as Deal Farm biogas plant in Bressingham is dismantled
Campaigners, who spent four years fighting plans for a controversial biogas plant in their village, were celebrating this week after its demolition got under way.
Proposals to create an anaerobic digester – a facility that uses a natural process to convert organic waste into biogas – at Deal Farm in Bressingham were dismissed on appeal in November.
After an anxious wait due to a six-week appeal window, jubilant villagers watched on with a sense of triumph as the first cranes arrived on site on Monday to tear down the facility.
“We are completely ecstatic to see the cranes come in,” said campaigner Christine Murton.
“It marks the culmination of a four-year fight. At the very beginning, we knew we were up against a huge energy company, but we knew we were in the right.
“Now that has been proven, we are absolutely delighted. It has been a real David-vs-Goliath battle.”
Storengy UK saw its planning permission for the plant, which would have processed waste and turned it into fertiliser, granted by South Norfolk Council in 2015.
Development started in 2018, but was halted three years later over claims that its three lagoons had deviated from the original plans.
Subsequent attempts to get around this were stamped out when the Planning Inspectorate refused the firm’s appeal.
Dan Elmer, leader of South Norfolk Council, said: “People cannot be allowed to get away with bypassing our planning system just to get their own way, completely disregarding the impact their actions have on the local people and communities.
“We tried to help the applicant and worked with them, but what they built bore no resemblance to the planning permission they were given and, in order to support the local community, we had no choice but to enforce its demolition.
“This is the end of a very sad story, but people must understand that there will be consequences if you try to flout the planning system.”
James Easter, who arranged a meeting at Bressingham Village Hall which sparked the campaign group against the plant, said he was pleased that sense had prevailed.
He said: “This has taken a huge toll on residents locally over the last four years and the planning inspectors’ decision was absolutely clear: this is an intentional unauthorised development and the impact on highways would have been highly detrimental to local people from a wide area.”
Sue Butler, whose garden boundary was 50 metres from the site, said: “When we embarked on this emotional nightmare, we had no idea of the detrimental impact it would have on our mental and physical health, but now we can start to heal.
“It started out as a fight to maintain our quality of life – something we had worked hard all our lives to achieve. There were times when it looked as though it was going to be stripped away from us, with no regard or consideration.
“But our fight was joined by some incredible people along the way, without whom we could not have sustained the battle as the developer did everything possible to grind us down.
“As a collective, we have achieved what felt impossible at times and we can never thank everyone enough.”