Festival bosses fearful of waste facility odours

THE organisers of a well-known music festival have objected to proposals for an organic waste processing facility due to fears about odours.

- By TOM WILKINSON, PA

An application was lodged with Durham County Council to establish an industrial-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) facility at Sprucely Farm near Sedgefield, County Durham.

BioConstruct New Energy, headquartered on Teesside, originally secured permission to proceed with the scheme, but complaints emerged regarding insufficient local consultation and the matter will be reconsidered next month by the National Planning Inspectorate.

The submission indicated that the facility would produce methane from 76,000 tonnes of material each year, which once treated would meet the gas requirements for 18,000 households. The leftover digested matter would serve as fertiliser for nearby farms.