Council defers decision on controversial Saltby Airfield HGV plans

The Saltby Estate agricultural operation there acts as an emergency store for Sleaford Renewable Energy Plant, a straw burning, non-fossil fuel, energy plant.

It says it will limit lorry journeys to 40 a day, with HGVs entering the site from the Croxton Kerrial direction via The Butts and then leaving the airfield along Wyeville Road to rejoin the main A607 near Denton.

But the council has received 126 objections from residents in six nearby villages who say the lorry movements will result in traffic dangers and an adverse environmental impact.

Members of the planning committee highlighted dangers with using the narrow Wyeville Road for transporting straw away from the site.

His sentiments were echoed by Councillor Chris Evans, who said: “This idea of going down Wyeville Road is an absolute disaster.

"It’s got hairpins in it and no car meeting an HGV would be able to get by unless it goes into a ditch.”

Joey Newton, a Sproxton parish councillor who spoke at the meeting, called for the routing of HGVs to be changed back to the original plan of entering and leaving the airfield on the road leading to Croxton Kerrial, stating that the use of Wyeville Road as an exit was ‘unacceptable’.

Croxton Kerrial parish councillor, Patricia Lawrence, spoke on behalf of the objectors to the scheme, and she highlighted a new traffic survey compiled by Hungerton Farms which showed that traffic along Wyeville Road would increase by 103 per cent and HGV movements by 667 per cent if the lorry routing proposal was implemented.

Councillors were unhappy that the traffic survey highlighted by Ms Lawrence wasn’t included in the report although a planning officer pointed out it had been referred to both the Leicestershire and Lincolnshire County Council highways departments and that neither had changed their stance that they had no objections to the planning application.

Paul Watson, a planning consultant speaking on behalf of the applicants, indicated that a change of routing arrangement could be considered.

He told the committee: “Reacting to comments from residents we thought we were being helpful in saying we could take vehicles along Wyeville Road if that was preferred.

"If there is a feeling in the parish that it would be better to use Saltby Road back towards Croxton Kerrial we could give an undertaking that vehicles could go that way instead.”

Frazer Jolly, the farm manager at Saltby Farms, pointed out that the airfield was an emergency storage site for the Sleaford energy plant and that there has been very little HGV activity associated with it between September last year and August this year.

He said any lorry movements would be restricted to 7am to 7pm on weekdays and none at weekends or bank holidays, adding: “I’m confident that if our application is supported there will be very little impact from the site going forward due to careful management and the limited nature of the operation.”

Councillors voted to defer a decision to allow the applicant and parish council more time to discuss the HGV routes and for the new traffic survey to be considered more thoroughly.