Go-ahead for Folkestone AD plant

Countrystyle Recycling has gained planning consent for an anaerobic digestion plant at Sellindge near Folkestone, Kent, with capacity to process up to 20,000 tonnes of food and garden waste per year. Alongside will be a material recycling facility dealing with around 75,000 tonnes of dry recyclable material.

The proposed facility, in the redundant Otterpool quarry and asphalt production site, has been the focus of considerable local opposition since plans were announced in 2008. The protest group dubbed the AD facility a "sludge plant".

Countrystyle says that solid digestate from the plant will be utilised as an agricultural fertiliser, while gas will be used to produce electricity. Kent County Council approved the plans last week, in line with recommendations by planning officers.

Supporting the developers, Nigel Cronin, technical director of SLR Consulting, spoke in the three-hour debate that preceded the vote. "We were keen to emphasise that the new plant would ensure that locally generated waste would no longer need to be transported 30 miles away to be landfilled," he said.

• Countrystyle Recycling
• Protest website
• SLR news release