As a community group, Protect Our Keynsham Environment (POKE) has fought a highly successful campaign to persuade local councillors on the Bath and North East Somerset Council (B&NES) planning committee to unanimously refuse plans for a supersized anaerobic digester facility in the heart of our Green Belt. Since that important victory, developer Resourceful Energy Anaerobic Limited (REAL) have advised B&NES that they now intend to Appeal against the decision.

This is despite:

• every single councillor on the B&NES planning committee voting to refuse planning permission on 9th March 2022; and

• 847 objections to the proposals made by local residents and organisations; and

• the recommendation by B&NES planning department that this development should not go ahead.

What’s at stake?

Our community must now prepare for a planning inquiry and once again we need professional help. This costs thousands of pounds, but is very important to ensure we have a really effective voice in countering the developer’s efforts to overturn local public opinion and our B&NES councillors vote to reject their plans. This is a critical time for our community, for if we lose the Appeal, the supersized anaerobic digester facility will be built and our town and villages will change forever. Now is the key time to stop the developer once-and-for-all.

How you can help

We urgently need your help to raise a £20,000 fighting fund to oppose this Appeal to the Secretary of State on B&NES's decision. This will ensure that the concerns of objectors are voiced as effectively as possible at the Appeal Inquiry. We need the Planning Inspector to know just how strongly local people feel about this.

REAL are requesting that the Appeal be determined under the Public Inquiry process, a formal procedure where those giving evidence can be cross examined by barristers. The form sent to B&NES estimates the length of the public inquiry to be 12 days. We (POKE) have asked for an Informal Hearing, where evidence is discussed in front of an Inspector and parties are not cross examined, but it’s likely that the Planning Inspectorate will grant a Public Inquiry.

Rest assured POKE will not cease in its focused opposition to this proposal, but we need you to get behind us please. We have already had a significant victory at the planning stage and with your help and support again, we are confident that the community can win this fight!

The B&NES planners’ report said:

• the siting of the development is inappropriate and unacceptable in principle; and

• the development would have an unacceptable impact on highway safety; and

• it would harm protected species including bats and barn owls; and

• it is inappropriate development that is harmful to the openness of the Green Belt.

REAL had failed to justify any very special circumstances for the development in the Green Belt. If you want to revisit B&NES reasoning for refusal, please see the decision notice.

The second round of our campaign to present evidence at a Public Inquiry will be vastly different from our previous efforts and we need to work together as a community to show REAL that we still say 'NO' to the supersized anaerobic digester facility.

Why do we need the money?

The fighting fund will help us to prepare our evidence for a Public Inquiry and pay for our consultant team working at the Inquiry. We will need to use our expert witnesses, employ planning consultants and commission reports to be presented and examined in front of the Planning Inspector.

REAL have advised that they intend to Appeal against B&NES's refusal of planning permission.

They want to build a 92,000-tonne anaerobic digester facility on greenfield land in the heart of our Green Belt that will massively affect many surrounding towns and villages such as Compton Dando, Keynsham, Pensford, Queen Charlton, Whitchurch Village, Woollard and beyond.

B&NES will fight the Appeal, arguing there were good grounds for refusing planning permission.

We support B&NES and will work with them to complement their case and fill any gaps created by funding shortfalls, but we also want the Planning Inspector to be in no doubt about the inappropriateness of this development and how strongly local people feel about it.

What will the money pay for?

Your donations will help us to pay for professional planning experts and possibly legal representation to help us to fight our case.

And the more you give, the greater our chances of winning and defending our democratic decision!

We believe that our Green Belt should be preserved and that it is not the right location for unsustainable industrial development that will cause a blight to our environment, quality of life and the wellbeing of residents.

How to donate

You can use the GoFundMe page now using a PayPal account, or by using a debit or credit card.

If you choose to donate by direct bank transfer or cheque, 100% of your money goes to the fight as no fee is deducted (if you use GoFundMe a fee of around 3% is taken). Details about these options can be found on our ‘donate page’ on the POKE website.

The fighting fund money is being held in a secure ring-fenced bank account by POKE. Any funds remaining after the POKE campaign will be used or donated to a similar purpose (as per the POKE Constitution).

Thank you so much for your support! We know how really hard everyone’s finances are pushed at the moment. But every donation, however small, will help us on our way and to victory!

Why do the local community have to fund any of the Appeal - why doesn’t it rest with the council?

Like all council’s, B&NES have limited funds and resources available for planning appeals and do not always have the in-house expertise to deal with unusual applications of this nature. We feel the Appeal will be better defended if we supported them with our expertise and experts, and to ensure that the local community is fully heard.

Why is the applicant intending to Appeal?

We hoped REAL would accept the verdict for this exceptionally sensitive site, but they are intending to Appeal against the decision, hoping they can persuade a Planning Inspector to overrule the council and to say that the town got it wrong. This means we now face more months of uncertainty until a planning inquiry.

REAL is appealing against a local and unanimous democratic decision and the overall will of local people because it stands to make large profits if it is successful in pushing on with its plans. We know from the sale particulars (during an unsuccessful attempt to sell Resourceful Earth Ltd or REL for short) that REL are entitled to £28.5 million in feed-in tariffs (over the next 15 years) for up to 2.2 MW of electricity they will generate per annum. In addition, we know from planning documents that they intend to generate a further 5.4 MW of gas for which we understand they will be paid a less favourable subsidised rate.

The planning inquiry is like a court with a Planning Inspector as the judge. We expect REAL to use their financial muscle to employ the best legal and technical representatives. B&NES will need similar legal and technical expertise to defend its refusal of planning permission.

POKE intends to apply for 'Rule 6' participant status at the inquiry so that we too can make our case and challenge the argument of inappropriate development in the Green Belt. We think it is vital that the Planning Inspector hears local concerns, but we must expect to be cross examined too and will need professional advice and representation to defend our case. However, if we don’t raise enough funds, we won’t be able to have a seat at the table to defend our democracy.

Background to phase one of our campaign

In the last round of our campaign against this speculative planning application we have, with your help, raised awareness of the Green Belt, transport, sustainability and need issues. With local residents’, interested groups and the generous help of official bodies, we were able to raise funds to successfully oppose the original planning application. For transparency, details about how these funds were spent are included below.

How were funds spent for phase one of our campaign?

We raised £12,359.63 in donations to support our opposition to the original planning application. That money was carefully targeted at a number of areas, which included:

• £12,056 was spent on commissioning independent specialist experts and reports, submitted to add weight to the arguments for opposition, creating a case that the planners and the planning committee could not ignore.

• £130 was spent on communications to inform people and organisations on the facts and encourage opposition to REAL's planning application for a proposed ‘supersized anaerobic digester facility’ on Queen Charlton Quarry.

• £173.63 was spent on administration such as bank charges and GoFundMe fees.

We also saved ourselves £12,000 by managing to negotiate significant discounts or pro-bono support from all our experts who helped us and understood the financial difficulties community groups like ours face. We are incredibly grateful for that support.

Having declared that our fighting fund target for the Public Inquiry is £20,000 you may wonder why the GoFundMe page has a higher figure. Unfortunately, it is not possible to separate the two phases of the overall campaign, so you will see the total raised against the total targets combined. We hope this clarifies the numbers!