PARISH COUNCIL OF BENENDEN

Minutes of the SpecialMeeting held on Thursday 1st September 2016

Present / Cllrs Barker, Davies, Ellis, Henning, Skeet, and Thomas
In Attendance / Cllr Dawlings; Caroline Levett – Clerk; 25 members of the Public.

Benenden Village Hall, 7:30pm

  1. Apologies

Apologies were received and accepted from Cllrs Cruse, Marshall and Reynolds.

  1. Declaration Of Interests And Alterations To Members Register Of Interests

No declarations of interest were made.

  1. Sole Item of Business : to consider planning application reference KCC/TW/0135/2016, Forest Farm, Nineveh Lane, Benenden, TN17 4LG

Proposed erection of a 499kw anaerobic digestion facility to process farm yard manure and slurry which is produced on site, along with a proportion of crops which are grown on the farm, and 832 tonnes of imported chicken manure. The development comprises two 18m diameter tanks connected by a pump room, each topped with a gas dome, one feeder and a combined heat and power unit.

Cllr Davies opened the meeting asked Cllr Barker, as Chairman of Benenden Parish Council Planning and Highways Committee, to summarise the proposal and key planning issues. Cllr Barker reported that other statutory consultees, including TWBC and the AONB unit had raised no objection.

Three parishioners spoke at the meeting, and their objections were heard by the Parish Council. There were no speakers in support of the proposal.

Concerns were raised by parishioners and Parish Councillors regarding, amongst other issues, traffic management, croppage, CO2 emissions, storage, odour, noise and size relative to the forms supporting the facility.

Cllr Barker proposed supporting the application, and this was seconded by Cllr Henning. No other Parish Councillors present supported this proposal.

Cllr Thomas proposed that no decision could be taken due to insufficient validated information regarding the proposal. This was seconded by Cllr Skeet and supported by Cllrs Ellis and Davies. Cllrs Barker and Henning opposed this proposal.

It was agreed that Cllr Davies draft a response to KCC.

The meeting closed at 8:30pm.

Chairman………………………………………………………………… Date……………………………………Page 1

These minutes are not a verbatim record of the meeting, but a summary of discussion and decisions taken at the meeting.