The company is planning to use more than 200,000 tonnes of waste products a year to produce energy
A new energy plant could be built right next to an already existing site. Pretoria Energy has submitted plans to build a large anaerobic digestion plant in Chatteris.
The plant would be located west of the existing Mepal AD plant, also run by Pretoria, and south of Grey’s Farm in Chatteris. If approved, Pretoria proposes to use around 220,000 tonnes of feedstock every year, consisting of chicken and poultry litter, straw and blended liquid food waste to produce energy.
The applicant said: “The primary use is to generate energy in the form of biogas which would be exported to the gas network via an existing connection point currently used within the applicant’s existing AD plant.
“The planning agent has advised the thermal output will be more than 50 megawatts, whilst there will be an estimated 100 HGV movements per day during the week.”
The land is currently an agricultural site. Pretoria’s current AD plant produces 120 HGV movements a day, including 60 vehicles in and 60 vehicles out. There could be an overlap in HGV movements between the existing plant and new one. However, the applicant said this would be for a “temporary period”.
If approved, the construction of the site could have the “potential to create noise and light”. Construction is expected to take around 24 months, with work taking place between 7am and 6pm on Mondays to Fridays and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays.
Pretoria has produced a noise assessment for the applicant. This doesn’t provide an assessment on the effects of the construction stage, but it believes there “would not be a significant effect”.
The site is around 2.2km from the Ouse Washes, which is a special protection area and special area of conservation. An ecological air quality assessment submitted with the plans identifies that the site has the “potential to cause changes in pollution levels at sensitive ecological locations”.
However, the screening distance doesn’t include the washes and it’s “not likely to have any significant effects”. A new 530m access road between Blockmoor Drove and Short North Drove Byways has also been proposed.
Pretoria has submitted a similar planning application to East Cambridgeshire District Council for another AD plant in Stretham.



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