Gloucestershire gas plant plans rejected

​Villagers are celebrating after National Grid’s controversial plans to build a gas plant near Tewkesbury were rejected.

The borough council’s planning committee yesterday (Tue) refused to grant permission for a pressure reduction installation (PRI) close to Flat Farm, Tirley.

Despite the company saying it would help supply up to 20 per cent of the nation’s gas, councillors felt the PRI would be a blot on the rural landscape. After visiting the site, where they were met by placard-waving protesters, they decided the wrong location had been chosen and voted overwhelmingly to throw out the application.

Their decision led to joyful celebrations at the council offices in Tewkesbury from some of the 992 people who objected to the scheme.

Councillor Phil Awford (C, Highnam with Haw Bridge) told the meeting: “This massive industrial plant has no place in open attractive countryside where it will be remote and unmanned.”

Residents feared the PRI’s 12 28ft-high chimney stacks would ruin the countryside, pump out fumes and create a huge amount of noise.

Mr Awford said: “I am advised that the noise is the equivalent of a jet aircraft passing directly overhead. The impact on horses and livestock would be dire.”

Despite planning officer Oliver Rider saying the police felt the site would be protected against a terrorist threat, some members were not convinced that villagers would be safe.

Mr Awford said that, if there was an explosion, there would potentially be loss of life.

Councillor Derek Davies (C, Highnam with Haw Bridge) said PRI might as well stand for ‘permanent ruination instantly’ and added: “While I am minded that there has to be a solution to this ill thought out application, the one on offer is not the correct one.”

If the application had been approved by the council, it would have been referred to the Government for a final decision but the committee’s refusal decision means this will not now happen.

It is the second time National Grid has had its plans for a PRI near Tewkesbury rejected. Its bid to build one a few hundred yards away, in Corse, was thrown out by the Forest of District Council in 2006. The company appealed against its decision but it was upheld by the Planning Inspectorate following a public inquiry in 2007.

After yesterday’s meeting, National Grid’s major projects manager, David Mercer, said: “We’re very disappointed with the decision. The secretary of state, in his report into the public inquiry, had confirmed the very important national need for this installation.

“We will now have to go away and consider the reasons for refusal before deciding on our next course of action.”

Peter McMurtrie, chairman of the Campaign Against Pressure Reduction Installation group, said: “I’m delighted. I think the council has reached the right conclusion. The site was not the right one for an industrial installation.”

He added: “The site was the cheapest available as far as National Grid was concerned. It was a bad choice and they deserved to lose.”

Zog Ziegler, who lives near to the proposed site, said: “I’m absolutely delighted. A lot of people thought ‘you can’t beat them’ but my mantra was that it’s not over till the fat lady sings and she’s had a good old sing now.”