PLANS to build a five acre biomethane plant in Malmesbury that could supply gas to 2,500 houses went on public display today.

The proposals for the site at Quobwell Farm, just off the B4014, were unveiled at a consultation held at the Horse Guards Pub in Brokenborough, which was attended by local residents.

The company behind the plans are Raw Biogas Ltd owned by RAW Energy. The plant they are looking to develop, on the Charlton Park Estate, will be capable of producing in the region of 400 cubic metres of biomethane per hour from renewable sustainable sources.

This would be enough to supply the gas needs of over 2,500 average UK houses every year and will save in excess of 8,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The gas line the site will be feeding into goes from Malmesbury to Tetbury and feeds domestic and industrial or commercial properties.

Stuart Homewood, one of the directors of RAW Energy, insists disruption to local residents will be minimal.

He said: “We won’t be having any lorries in per se as all of the vehicles will be farm vehicles.

“In terms of road disruption such as with lorries, there will be none to this site, at all. It’s really an adjustment of where [current farm vehicles] go currently.

“There will be a couple of weeks of site clearance, then four months of what we call heavy lifting, then after that the final bits and pieces will be done.”

One issue raised had been the potential of a bad smell coming from the site.

With regards to that matter Stuart said: “The preconception is that once the material moves through the digester it’s smelly, which can be case for food waste sites.

“The way we’ve done it, is that we only use agricultural feed stocks and waste at this site, so there is nothing really smelly going through the digesters.

“It would be like walking around cattle farm yard, so nothing noxious at all. You wouldn’t smell anything on the perimeter.

“No one has disagreed it’s a good location for this.”

Unlike fossil fuel derived methane that depends exclusively on its natural reserves which are becoming increasingly limited, biomethane is produced from fresh organic matter which is a renewable source of energy that can be produced worldwide.

Joe Sterry, who lives in Brokenborough near the site, was impressed with the plans and was pleased to see renewable energy being produced in the area.

“I think it’s great, and it’s very green energy,” he said. “It’s thought out very well.”

Sue Pratt, who in Malmesbury, was open-minded about the project, though had some reservations.

“It sounds relatively ok; it’s quite a big area,” she said.

“I have reservations about traffic movement and, despite what they say, the smell.

“We live half way along Filands, and we’ve had such a lot go on locally such at the Dyson extension, now all the building, and all the roundabouts going on.

“There’s just a lot been going on in the last couple of years.”

Sue felt, as many people have said online, that the consultation had not been suitably advertised.

“A local told us about it yesterday, we had no idea,” she said.

“I appreciate that this is just a public meeting, but if the public don’t know about it...”

Stuart Homewood said however that he felt RAW Energy had ensured people were made aware of the consultation, stating that they advertised it in the Standard and they put up posters through the village in Brokenborough.

The consultation period for the plans will last a number of weeks and submission of the final plans will be done soon after.