Further wait for power plant plan

By abutts

PLANS for a massive power station outside Castle Cary have been delayed amid fresh criticism the development will see an increase in heavy vehicles on local roads.

Action group Care4Cary has learned the initial stages of the planning process for a 12.7 (net) megawatt biomass plant at Dimmer will not begin for another six weeks.

Currently Bronzeoak Thermal, the Surrey-based company intending to build the plant, is said to be working with planners to decide what environmental reports must be prepared before a formal application is submitted to South Somerset District Council.

At a meeting last week Care4Cary chairman Helen Cleaveland said Bronzeoak representatives confirmed the plans would see 40-tonne trucks bringing in fuel.

She said this would have repercussions for most of South Somerset, and could see roads running through Ashcott, Keinton Mandeville, Lydford, Lovington, Shepton Mallet, Templecombe, Curry Rivel, Langport and Somerton, becoming clogged.

Carymoor parish councillor Peter Fell, said: "We were startled to hear the Bronzeoak team thought the approach roads to the Castle Cary site were not very busy. What an extraordinary misconception. We put them right on this point."

Care4Cary launched its Mega-What? campaign after early planning documents by Bronzeoak fell into the public domain.

In November, Bronzeoak told the action group and local councillors it would lower the plant's energy capacity.

Bronzeoak has come under criticism from residents before. It was forced to shut down an animal-carcass incinerator at Dimmer in 2006 after receiving complaints about smells.

Castle Cary town councillor Barry Moorhouse said sound environmental reports about the proposed plant were necessary.