The go-ahead has been granted for a “belt and braces” plan to improve odour issues at a Penrith business.
Animal rendering firm Omega Proteins Ltd was granted approval for the construction of a new bio-filter structure at its plant on the outskirts of the town, at a meeting of Eden Council’s planning committee.
This was despite concerns being raised over the expanding nature of the operation.
Eden Council planning officer Mat Wilson said the application was for a new bio-filter bed concealed within a concrete tank at Omega Proteins, Greystoke Road.
Councillors were told the proposal would provide additional mitigation for low-odour air extracted from buildings within the plant.
Mr Wilson said: “It is designed to mitigate odour impacts and it will do that by collecting air through a woodchip mix which contains bacteria and the bacteria breaks down odour molecules before releasing it into the atmosphere.
That tank, which is about 2.5m high, is designed to operate in conjunction with an approved poultry processing plant, said Mr Wilson.
At the Penrith plant, the most odorous air from raw material receiving and processing spaces is treated with heat in the site’s oxidisers to destroy odour molecules.
The site also has a new multifuel oxidiser approved by the council in November, 2017, and gas-powered oxidisers that provide additional capability when required.
Objecting to the proposal was Jeff Thomson, of campaign group Fresh Air for Penrith, who claimed the application was a “smokescreen for further over intensification of an already over crowded industrial site on the edge of residential Castletown”.
He said there were 10 outstanding Omega Proteins Ltd planning applications still to be determined and therefore asked for the present proposal to be considered as part of the bigger picture.
Ali Ross (Green, Penrith) said measures to reduce the odour nuisance of this plant were obviously welcome, but given the number of applications which were both live and undetermined, the context of the considerations councillors were being asked to make was far from clear.
Deb Holden (Lib Dem, Penrith) pointed out that Omega had said quite categorically they do look to extend the site and build on what is already there.
Henry Sawrey-Cookson (Ind, Kirkby Thore) said: “I am just surprised by the lack of opposition to this because, from personal experience, the stench of dead poultry is absolutely all pervading and if you are lying in bed in your private house and this is coming in the window, you can’t control it.”
Committee chairman William Patterson (Ind Alliance, Warcop) said the planning application before councillors was for a proposal to help improve the situation and it was agreed that planning approval should be granted for the biofilter on that basis.
