Road deaths warning as digester gets go-ahead
Residents have criticised the decision to allow an anaerobic digester to be built on a small country lane off a major trunk road, warning of road deaths due to increased traffic.
Plans to site the digester, on Park Lane, Woofferton, off the A49 south of Ludlow, were passed at a meeting of Shropshire Council's South Planning Committee at Shirehall yesterday.
But about 15 residents came out to protest at a site visit yesterday morning the before the 2pm meeting. Thirty objections had been lodged by residents, who said the digester was too close to homes and businesses, and the increase in lorries serving the digester, turning off the A49 and hurtling down country lanes, would be dangerous.
Speaking after the decision, Steve Hunt, 55, a carpenter and hardware store worker who lives on the A49 near the site, said it was "disgraceful":
"The road there is very poor, it's a blind bend near a five point junction where the Salwey Arms is," he said. "It's a beast of a road.
"There's a series of bends there and sandwiched between is this turning to Park Lane.
"It's an absolute death trap. My neighbour has been hit and I've nearly been hit numerous times.
"Apart from Councillor Viv Parry not one of them spoke about that.
"People will die there, there's absolutely no doubt in my mind."
During the meeting, Ludlow councillor and planning committee member Vivienne Parry said: "There's a very bad turn out of the Salwey Arms and there have been several deaths there over the years. It's very dangerous and I personally think we will get more deaths."
She said she also had concerns for the impact on the 16 residents at Woofferton residential Care Home, particularly the constant noise.
"The elderly people living in this home are going to suffer very badly," she said.
"Yes we need anaerobic digesters, no this isn't the right site for it.
"The people of Woofferton don't need something like this."
Stephen Pott, 66, a retired engineer representing the residents on the surrounding roads, said: "They seem to have missed the point about the traffic hazard, they just spoke about the visual impact."
He said the justification that it wasn't a "pretty" spot was also unfair.
"With that attitude the village is going to become a dumping ground." During the meeting he said: "The generators' continual whine will be like infecting the community with tinnitus."
He said he and others had visited anaerobic digester sites in the run up to the decision and found them "noisy and smelly".
Speaking after the meeting, he said: "I'm very disappointed. Our only line of recourse now is to challenge them legally on the process, but we don't have the resources."
