Biogas plant plan comes under fire in Stackallen

Concerned residents in Stackallen say they intend to fight any plans to build an agricultural biogas facility that would impact life in the rural community.

Owners of Stackallen Farm propose to build the renewable energy plant adjacent to Stackallen House just outside Navan with an entrance on French Lane.

The owners of the cattle farm recently held an information meeting for residents outlining their intention to submit a planning application for the facility. Locals were given an information pack detailing the need for the plant and how it would operate in the community.

The documentation explained how the facility would take in agriculture energy crops such as grass silage, multi species sward and hybrid rye as well as animal manures such as cattle slurry and farmyard manure.

The facility would generate biogas from these inputs, which will then be upgraded to biomethane gas and sold to local users to decarbonise their industries.

The by-product would be processed into a sustainable bio-fertiliser which will be sold back to the farmers who provide the feedstock to the plant.

It said that the development would create ten full time jobs and allow a €10m investment into Stackallen.

Local residents have registered their concerns about the choice of location for the access point to this site.

Other issues include impact on road access and safety, property price devaluation, odours, emissions and noise pollution.

Frank Cassin lives in the gate lodge that was originally part of the Stackallen House estate.

“I’m not totally against progress but this plan if it goes down French Lane is not the right plan,” he said.

“If people didn’t know this lane way, they would think that it is just another by-lane in Ireland but it is a total resource for everyone in the area,” he added.

Mr Cassin says the N51 Slane to Navan road would be a better option for the site entrance.

“It is not a road that you associate with articulated vehicles and heavy tractors pulling silage and slurry,” he said.

“Kids cycle to school on the road and all summer long they are up and down there. All that changes if this goes ahead in the form that is being proposed needlessly because the N51 in front of Stackallen House is the obvious place to route the traffic for this.

“The NRA wants to push traffic off national routes but French Lane is not the solution, it is tiny, if you go widening the lane, you change the whole dynamic of that road and it just becomes another fast road.

“It would be more effective and efficient to go up the N51, everyone is safer, the school is not impacted.”

Local Robert Price travelled with some other residents to view a similar facility in Northern Ireland, a trip organised by the owners of Stackallen Farm.

“The main issue everyone has is the access point to the site on the French Lane,” said Robert.

“They are looking at altering the road so that it can fit two articulated lorries and pull in lanes but there is just way too much traffic on the road to be introducing an extra 16 lorries a day minimum there.

“There is also the noise potential of these generators running 24/7 and a possible odour. If the facility is ran correctly there should be no adverse smell as long as it is silage and plant material they are feeding in. My concern would be that in the future if they were to use municipal waste or different types of slurry material. We have been informed that this set up can’t use waste material but the licence could change over time.”

Robert points out that a vast amount of land would need to be utilised to grow the crops needed to fuel the system potentially impacting the role of livestock.

“Hundreds of acres of land is needed to feed this bio-reactor. Will this now be land taken off live animals potentially leading on to the importation of meats from south America or other places and yet we have the best meat in the world?”

Resident Brian Reilly added that if the proposed plans were to go ahead it would “devastate” the area, “devalue homes and change the fabric of the community.”

When Meath Chronicle requested details of the intended planning application a spokesperson for the proposed Stackallen Biogas facility said:

“We recently hosted a community consultation open house and we have been working on the feedback we received from our neighbours.

“We would rather wait until this is explored further before sharing our plans.

“We will be organising a visit to an anaerobic digestor plant in Banbridge in the near future so our neighbours can see for themselves what is involved in such a project.”