Welcome to our website for Astwick Green, our changed proposal for an anaerobic biodigester west of the A43 between Evenley and Croughton.
Astwick Green is an agricultural scheme with local farmers at its heart. Our plans would contribute to Britain’s energy security and work with farmers from the surrounding area.
This website will continue to be updated as the proposals progress through the planning system.
At a glance
Our refreshed plans maintain all of the project benefits while reducing impacts on local people:
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We will work hand-in-hand with the local farming industry, providing local farmers with guaranteed revenue and natural fertiliser.
Astwick Green Energy will take organic material, including crops from rotations and manure, from local farms to feed the plant. The same farmers will benefit by receiving the natural fertiliser produced at the end of the gas generation process. This will reduce the amount of expensive and imported artificial fertiliser that local farm businesses need to buy, improving soil health and storing more carbon.
We’ll also create 15 Full Time Equivalent jobs, and support 35 further jobs through the supply chain.
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Astwick Green will help Britain regain our energy and food security. Currently, we import energy and fertiliser that can easily be produced within Britain.
Over 60% of nitrogen fertiliser is imported to the UK from overseas. Astwick Green would help tackle this problem by producing fertiliser from the anaerobic digestion process. This goes back to the same local farmers who supply our plant. Along with the growing of energy crops as part of agricultural rotation, this will improve soil health and long term crop yields.
Our nation is vulnerable to volatile international gas prices. Astwick Green will generate enough energy to heat the equivalent of 8,142 households, greater than the number of homes in Brackley.
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We put forward a previous proposal for such a development on this site in August 2022. Although this received no objections from technical consultees and the Council’s Planning Team recommended its approval, our planning application was refused in December 2023 because of concerns about its scale, height and massing on the local area, and impacts on the local landscape character.
We have listened to this feedback and have changed our plans.
Through a complete redesign of the scheme, we have prepared new proposals which maintain support the rural economy and contribute to British energy security, but significantly reduce their scale, height and massing and related local landscape impacts.
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We’ve listened to the feedback from our previous application and taken steps to reduce the impacts of the proposal, with fewer tanks, most of which are lower, minimising the impact on the landscape, but kept all the benefits to local farmers and the rural economy.
The buildings at Astwick Green Energy won’t look out of scale from the type of structures, such as barns, often seen on commercial farms.