Say NO to Acorn
Hornage Farm anaerobic digester plant
Acorn Bioenergy, a company owned by Spanish investors, has applied to Buckinghamshire County Council to build an industrial-scale anaerobic digester plant on the B4011 between Long Crendon and Oakley.
The villages of Chearsley, Chilton, Easington, Ickford, Long Crendon, Oakley, Shabbington, Worminghall, Cuddington, Brill and others will all be affected by this proposal.
The proposed site is Hornage Farm, part of the Aubrey-Fletcher's Chilton Estate.
URGENT - ACORN's UPDATED ANAEROBIC DIGESTER APPLICATION
In February 2025, 1651 local residents signed the community response letter, objecting to Acorn's application to erect an industrial-scale anaerobic digester at Hornage Farm.
You may well have recently received a letter from Buckinghamshire Council relating to Acorn’s updated planning application. We require your continued support.
WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW:
1. Write to Buckinghamshire Council, as an individual
Email: planning.comments@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
Reference the case number CM/0022/22
- Confirm your prior objections still stand, as nothing in Acorn’s latest application documents has mitigated these objections (please use your own words).
- Use the information in THIS DOCUMENT to add any additional comments. (We have included only very top-level information in this email, but if you would like more detail on any particular topic, please get in touch and we will do our best to provide this.)
2. Support the updated community response letter
We will write a detailed response to Buckinghamshire Council in the name of all signatories to the Feb 2025 letter, to be submitted prior to the end of the consultation.
Please let us know only if you DO NOT WISH to be a signatory to the updated letter (send an email to hello@adimpact.info to that effect by 7th June 2026). We will assume if we do not hear from you by the end of 7th June that you are happy to be included on the June 2026 community response letter.
3. Attend your next local Parish Council Meeting
Encourage your Parish Council to represent your views in their response to the latest consultation. You can find dates of Parish Council meetings on your village website.
The Acorn application is on the agenda to be discussed at the next Long Crendon Parish Council meeting at 19.30, Monday 1st June 2026, at Long Crendon Pavilion.
The latest consultation ends on 19th June 2026, so please ensure that you have sent in your updated comments by then. Whilst we do not know when the application will be heard at committee, the earliest that it will be is August (the August meeting is currently provisionally scheduled for Thursday 27th). We will of course be keeping in touch with the committee Support Officer as this latest consultation phase closes.
21 May
2026
January 2025
Our campaign is reported on BBC News South
Some of you will have seen the feature on BBC South on Sunday 12th January 2025. Whilst of course these features are always shorter than you'd want them to be, hopefully it helped to raise awareness and was a good opportunity to link up with Greg Smith MP. Thanks to Ros Finney Paul Newell and Jo Grey for being involved with this.
Why shouldn't it be built?
Anaerobic digestion can be a very efficient, effective process if done at an appropriate scale in the right location, providing a means of converting animal manure into energy. However, the Acorn proposal at Hornage Farm is the wrong size of plant in the wrong location, and will have many negative impacts, both on the environment and our local communities.
- The plant could lead to a staggering 150% increase in HGV traffic through our local villages – an additional HGV passing through our villages every five minutes at peak times.
- The five, 17m high biodigester tanks will be seen from up to 10 miles away and have a huge visual impact on the surrounding countryside and villages.
- 15 acres of agricultural land would be covered with concrete, with a substantial industrial plant built on top, affecting our countryside’s natural beauty and ecology.
- Agricultural land will be converted from food crops to grow crops specifically to feed the Anaerobic Digester. This would be against the upcoming DEFRA Land Use Strategy (2024), with negative impact on food security.
- Crops and slurry will be delivered by road from considerable distance. Biogas produced will be taken by truck to sites such as Southampton or Banbury.
Acorn's application is currently being considered by the Buckinghamshire County Council's Strategic Sites Committee and is in the consultation phase. The committee will likely review it at their meeting in February 2025.
Local Parish Councils, including Long Crendon, Oakley, Chearsley, Worminghall, and Chilton, have all submitted objections to the proposal.
Community action is needed
Object Online
Sign our community objection to the application by emailing us at hello@ADimpact.info
AND
Voice your concerns through the Bucks CC planning portal using the link below...
Join Our Mailing List
Whether you want to be kept informed of our progress, important dates, or offer your help. Please complete the form to get on board.
Donate
Contribute to the Fighting Fund: Help us cover the cost of commissioning traffic and visual impact assessments, plus produce campaign materials. Any contribution, no matter how small, is appreciated.
The impact of the proposed development on our local communities
How could this impact our lives?
If the Hornage Farm plant is built, it will affect us in many different ways, including:
- Reduced property values
- Less safe roads for children and adults
- More potholes from increased HGV traffic
- Reduced air quality, with potential for respiratory/ allergy issues
- Increased noise pollution, building vibrations and unpleasant odours
- Loss of local nature and wildlife
- Loss of visual amenity from an Area of Attractive Landscape (AAL)
- Risk of toxic waste pollution to nearby waterways
Photos showing location, traffic and visual impact of the digester to the surrounding villages
Want to help or have questions?
Say No to Acorn is a group of residents from across villages that will be affected by Acorn's proposal. We are all pooling our skills and resources to stand up for our villages and communities. We are contributing skills we have built up from a range of backgounds including planning, sustainability, media, communications, parish council and the civil service. We have an amazing bunch of volunteers from all walks of life delivering leaflets, and, if you are reading this, you are also part of our community and we thank you. The crowdfunding campaign is being managed specifically by Alex Davis and Ros Finney, both Long Crendon residents. This page will be kept up to date with all expenditure documented publicly on the crowdfunding site. Anyone who would like further information around the financial governance of this campaign please contact hello@ADimpact.info
email us