What’s happened?

Acorn have added more documents to their application and Bucks Council have written to people who had commented, inviting further comments, and giving a new deadline of 18th January. Given this deadline, the application could be considered at the Buckinghamshire County Counci Strategic Sites Committee meeting scheduled for 13 February 2025, although this has not been confirmed.

What are the updates in the application?

Acorn claims to have made a number of concessions to address objections and concerns raised by residents. However, it is important to note that none of the changes are legally enforceable, nor are they supported by existing planning permissions; they are statements of intent.

The main changes included in Acorn’s new documents are:

1. The site has been extended to allow direct injection to the gas grid. This provides some validity to the site location. However, alternative (potentially more suitable) sites still don’t appear to be considered. It is also not clear when or how much gas will actually end up being injected directly to the gas grid as Acorn are still protecting the rights for Biogas export by road, nor is it confirmed whether Acorn has any agreement to access the gas network. Furthermore, Acorn does not appear to have accounted for the energy and CO2 emissions that would be required to clean and compress biomethane prior to injection into the gas network (these could be significant).

2. The new track to gas injection point is also used to deliver feed via an extensive network of farm tracks; (as yet unidentified), apparently relieving the highway. The suggested reduction is 10% or 1192 two-way yearly movements. The track from Worminghall off the highway will not be used, and it is not confirmed whether Acorn has the requisite permissions to use farm tracks instead of the highway.

3. Generally Acorn claim their revised proposals reduce traffic volume by 28% which will require careful analysis. They further offer S106 obligations capping the peak daily number of two-way HGV trips at 140 per day (ie 70 into the site and 70 out of the site, relative to the 94 per day included in their original submission) and limiting the hours of permitted movement. Whilst Acorn has offered these as conditions of planning permission, there is no clear consequence of failure to meet this cap.

4. There is the continued reference to the fact that none of the technical consultees have raised objections. To our knowledge, technical consultees have not been reconsulted since the community objection was submitted.

What information is still missing in the application?

There is still no information included regarding the whole life carbon impacts of the Acorn industrial development. During the construction phase alone, considering solely the concrete required to construct the site (estimated to be over 230,000 Tonnes) the CO2 emissions would be equivalent to 6 months of CO2 emissions for the whole of Aylesbury. The overall impacts of the project, including impacts on food production by switching crops to feed the Acorn plant, have not been provided.

What are the Say No to Acorn Group doing in response to the latest Acorn application?

For the initial formal community response, the group commissioned a traffic report and visual impact study, thanks to funds raised from the community through GoFundMe. An updated visual impact study (currently in progress) will show the impact of the AD plant on the local landscape during winter months. In addition, a further report from traffic experts is being commissioned to scrutinise and respond to Acorn’s latest traffic data. Information from these two reports, plus any additional responses, will be submitted to Bucks CC ahead of the 18 th January deadline as an addendum to the full community response.

What do you need to do? 

1. If you haven’t already made an objection, please do so through the Bucks CC planning consultation portal prior to the 18th January deadline (you can find the link and guidance on www.saynotoacorn.co.uk.)

2. If you have already submitted an objection, you can add an additional comment to reiterate your continued opposition to the proposal. Simply log in to the website, and it will automatically connect this with your previous comment.

Exactly what you write depends on what you included previously, but you can use the bullet points above as a guide (please do use your own words). We do not consider that any of the updates that Acorn have made to their application makes their development any less harmful to the environment and our communities. 

3. Add your signature to the updated community response. Once we have updated the formal community response - with information from the new reports commissioned above - we will notify those registered by email and also through the SayNoToAcorn Facebook group. Or you can add your signature directly via the link on www.saynotoacorn.co.uk .

Please keep an eye on emails and the SayNoToAcorn group on Facebook for further information as we receive it. It is no coincidence that Acorn chose to submit their updated application so close to Christmas, when they judged that members of the community would be distracted by holidays and have less time to regroup and respond. Given the short timescale, we would appreciate your help both in adding to your own objections and spreading the word to friends and neighbours.