Sion Mills residents to challenge digestor

A group of residents in Sion Mills, County Tyrone, has said it will challenge plans to build a waste management plant on the site of the historic Herdman's Mill.

Up to 100 people gathered at a meeting in the village to voice concern at a planning proposal.

It was submitted by the Donegal-based firm Connective Energy Holdings.

The company wants to build an anaerobic digester to process waste and generate electricity.

CEHL has said the energy park will benefit the community and bring jobs to the area.

Andy Patton, chairman of the Sion Mills Community Forum is one of those against the proposal.

"At the meeting there were roughly about a hundred people there," he said.

"About 98% of the people that were there are against the proposed plans.

"Basically waste will be processed and methane gas is to be taken off that. It will be burned to produce electricity and the proposal is for that to be sold back onto the grid."

Anaerobic digestion is the process of recycling food waste and agricultural waste into renewable fuel to generate electricity, heat and fertiliser for farmland.

Silage is produced by anaerobic digestion. It is also used in the manufacture of some food and drink products.

Sion Mills resident Karen McGillian said she was objecting on several grounds.

"First of all the noise that comes with a site of this size, the odour and the amount of traffic with slurry tanks, the tractors and diggers and all the other traffic associated that's going to be coming up and down the road," she said.

"As a resident of the village, what I had hoped would happen here would be that something would be created that would continue on the legacy that Herdman's brought to the village. You can see the beauty of it and you can still see the potential it has.

"I would seriously question the contribution in terms of the Herdman's legacy that this particular plant would bring to the village."

Karen said this was despite the fact that the company stated on their planning application that there will be two jobs created by the development.

'Sacrosanct'

Brian McGillian thinks people need to be informed about what is actually being proposed.

"It's really important that we inform the community of what an anaerobic digestor will actually mean in terms of quality of life of those living in the village," he said.

"What we're talking about is a massive industrial output of digestate running alongside one of the most important rivers in western Europe."

Celia Ferguson, who is from Sion Mills, has a unique perspective on the plans.

"My family actually built Sion Mills, I was a Herdman before I married a Ferguson," she said.

"This is the most important industrial heritage site, certainly in Ireland and one of the most important in the British isles.

"I think it's probably not the right place to have such a large anaerobic digestor.

"It would be a very, very large structure and it's in the curtilage of the mill buildings which would detract from the view of the mill which is sacrosanct really in heritage terms."

CEHL spokesperson Brendan McSorley said the issues raised by residents had been addressed in the planning application.

"We can't allay the fears of every single person in Sion Mills, but we want to get the message out there that we are open and anyone who wants to can come and chat to us," he said.

"The main thing for us is that it will mean jobs for the village. The construction of this will bring between 60 and 70 jobs and in the long term it will create around 20 jobs."