Last year I wrote a blog inspired by Clint Eastwood, in which I explained that when it comes to planning, you’ve got to roll with the punches. That means taking the good with the bad, and occasionally the downright ugly.
Over a year on and nothing could be truer.
Sadly, positive news on the planning front remains thin. So, instead I’ll share exciting news about the growing dome.
The Good
Despite the failure of the initial trial dome our head horticulturalist, Raj, has been making huge strides in the one part of the dome that survived – the vehicle entrance area. Here, she’s been conducting growing trials, putting the hydroponics systems and horticultural lighting through their paces.
As a result, in the last two weeks, we have harvested spinach and lettuce, tomatoes and peppers, and much more are on the way!
The timing of these first crops couldn’t be better as the replacement Growing Dome has arrived from China – despite the disruption in transport caused by events in the Gulf.
Over the coming weeks we will be installing the new upgraded dome, ready for the hydroponics systems, lighting, raised growing beds and plant containers to be put into place for production at scale.
Then the planting begins. Such green shoots are a welcome reminder of our wider goals for the project, which are:
- to prove the dome’s capabilities and meet the fruit and vegetable needs of ten local families
- to gain planning permission for 100 of the 40m x 20m growing domes, ready to feed the wider local community with affordable produce.
Elsewhere on site, initial earthworks for the prototype Solid Waste Anaerobic Treatment Cell (SWATC) are complete. Over the next couple of weeks, the shotcrete equipment for the cell’s concrete lining will be installed.
This is an important step towards the day when we’ll be able to generate gas from solid waste. This will power electricity-generating engines, allowing Sustain Operations CIC to generate more low-cost energy – bringing indirect and direct benefits to our local community.
The Bad
Once again, the incredible incompetence of Wiltshire Council’s planning department rankles. Nine weeks after our submission, they have finally forwarded the revised flood plan to the Environment Agency and the flood board, delaying permission for the Super-Midden yet further!
The Ugly
In a strange twist, Wiltshire Council’s planning team have chosen to progress our Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant application in advance of the Super-Midden: despite the fact that it was submitted a full eight months after the Super-Midden. Stranger still, the acceleration of the AD application has happened in the face of numerous objections including those from Wootton Bassett Town Council itself.
The ugly thing about this is that it could well cause the Super-Midden application to be declined. Why? Because the Super-Midden application – submitted over half a year earlier – did not take the AD plant into account.
This raises the question – is this a devious move by the Council – or is this a case of ineptitude?
If it is the former we have a problem. However, experience shows that it’s more likely to be the latter.
And so, I have invented a new phrase that sums up Wiltshire Council and the wider bureaucracy that is holding the country back: UNCONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE.
It’s frustrating, but however the cards fall, we will overcome!
Until next time…
Nick Ash