The Town Council Planning committee at a meeting held on Monday 8th of January considered a planning application submitted for a replacement feather tipping shed by Omega Proteins.
The application submitted to Westmorland and Furness Council in November by Omega Proteins set out the companies plans to replace and enlarged tipping shed to replace an existing tipping shed at the Omega Protein’s animal by products processing plant located west of Penrith.
The application states that Omega Proteins are pursuing a programme of substantial investment in the Penrith plant to ensure the continued resilience of the business, provide support for safe and efficient working practices and to deliver continued environmental compliance and renewal of buildings, process lines and finished product handling.
The replacement and enlarged feather tipping shed proposed in the application its claimed will provide an improved managed air flow space to receive incoming raw material at the Penrith factory to provide odour abatement, with room air filtered via one of the sites biofilters.
The town council planning committee who are only consultees and have no planning powers to decide on any applications, decided that its response to Westmorland and Furness Council was that there was insufficient information available to make response on what is in effect an industrial facility.
Penrith town Council also added a list of requests to Westmorland and Furness Council for additional information to support the application to enable an informed response to be made by the town councils planning committee.
The town council requested that calculations should be provided on how the facility would help reduce odour emissions. Information should be provided about whether other options had been considered such as the subdivision of the building to allow tipping and then exit along with seals to ensure negative pressure and, if they had, why they had been discounted and the due to ongoing issues at the site, a response by the Environment Agency is essential.
Penrith Town Council also said that it has two Councillors with technical engineering expertise who have visited Omega and offered their expertise in order to assist with solutions for odour abatement.
These ex industry professionals the council says are willing to talk to Westmorland and Furness Planning Officers should they find that helpful.
A spokesperson for the Leo Group has said in a statement issued to us following the town council planning meeting “With the best available technology and a long-term philosophy of continuous improvement, Omega Proteins Penrith has undergone an extensive and ongoing investment programme over a number of years to support safe and efficient working practices and to use and produce green energy.”
“This long-term programme includes the refurbishment and replacement of ageing structures, of which the existing Feather Tipping Shed built in 2005 is one. Modernising and enlarging this building will provide us with better maintenance facilities. It goes without saying that the planned building will also be equipped with state-of-the-art odour abatement technology once it is completed.”
“However, we are aware of the queries raised by the Town Council Planning Committee about the odour management benefits of the replacement tipping shed and will provide additional information to the Committee in due course.”
“We take all odour complaints from the public very seriously and investigate all odour issues reported to us via our own hotline 07976 857 435 and the Environment Agency 0800 80 70 60.”
Westmorland and Furness councils consultation on the application is open until the 23rd of January with the decision set to be approved by planning officers as a delegated planning decision.
The full details of the application can be viewed at https://goto.penrith.town/Planning-2023-1056-FPA
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