Site Information
Acorn has been working hard to minimise any negative impact on local residents through updates to the scheme.
ODOUR
TRAFFIC IMPACT
VISUAL IMPACT
Odour
Acorn has never considered processing and will not ever consider processing household food waste. To evidence this, Acorn is entering into a formal agreement with the landowners to not process household food waste.
Acorn’s feedstocks will be break crops, as part of a sustainable crop rotation, and agricultural waste. The proposed plant does not have the capability, equipment, or storage facilities to process these inputs.
Originally, the manure for the process would’ve been spread on local agricultural land. Instead, this manure will be stored in enclosed sheds prior to entering the anaerobic digestion process which is contained reducing odour in the local environment.
Our air quality modelling has been published as part of the planning application which includes an assessment of odour in line with best-practice guidelines. The assessment concludes no impact on residents in Withersfield and Haverhill. Acorn must carry out daily checks to ensure this is adhered to in line with our permit.
Please see the ‘Air Quality Assessment’ modelled by SLR consulting on Suffolk County council’s planning portal for more information on air quality and odour.
Traffic Impact
From feedback at the last public consultation, Acorn has carefully considered mitigating the traffic impact on local residents in Withersfield and Haverhill.
Routing
The site is located directly off the A1307 which allows for direct access to and from the site, without the need for gas transport through either Withersfield or Haverhill as the gas movements arrive and leave from the west. For safety reasons, any egressing vehicles will use the roundabout just outside of Haverhill to head west on the A1307.
The site is also near land rich in agricultural feedstock. Acorn chooses agriculturally-based sites to minimise transport distances and traffic impact through residential areas.
Acorn has also proposed a new pipeline as part of the planning application which has significantly reduced the traffic movements needed for digestate.
As the crops are grown in sustainable rotation, this will dilute traffic movement on singular routes across the lifetime of the project. These movements will also only be concentrated to harvest movements and will be detailed further in a traffic management plan.
How we’re diluting traffic and feedstock movements
Number of Movements
There will be 50-58 movements (including entry and exit from the site) for importing feedstock, exporting digestate and exporting gas per day. There will be increases in agricultural movements during harvest periods at the end of June and mid-September.
57% of the agricultural movements are redistributions of movements that already occur on the local road network. Therefore, the majority of agricultural movements are not additional movements.
Acorn will contribute 22 additional movements to the A1307. For reference, the 2022 baseline HGV movements on the A1307 was 861 per day and the total vehicle movements on the A1307 is 17,793 per day.
Timings of Movements
Acorn aims to organise traffic movements in the least disruptive hours of the day and will avoid peak traffic times. Agricultural deliveries will not be 24 hours. Feedstock is delivered from Monday – Friday from 7:00-18:00 and on Saturday from 7:00-13:00 apart from peak harvest periods, twice a year.
Operational staff will be onsite from 7:00-19:00 Monday – Sunday.
The only 24-hour movements will be biomethane and green CO2 offtake as this will be produced continuously.
Visual Impact
The site was chosen because it has minimal visual impact and has a good degree of natural screening provided by existing woodland on three sides. Visual impact will be minimised by new woodland planting schemes on the eastern boundary. This will contribute to a biodiversity net gain and positively benefit the local environment. There will also be a regular maintenance programme to ensure this screening is enhanced over time.
Acorn will use a colour scheme whereby the anaerobic digestion domes will blend into the local surroundings as much as possible, they will not be bright red.
Please see a visual representation of the site below: