Fury has been sparked over Exeter City Council plans to sell-off of a green field within the Riverside Valley Park to make way for a new energy centre.
The council is proposing to sell a third of playing fields at Grace Road Fields, amounting to 1.8 hectares, to Exeter Energy Network for an energy plant that will extract heat from the River Exe and use excess heat from the nearby incinerator as well as from a proposed data centre.
It will provide heating for commercial and domestic premises alongside the river including the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and County Hall. The site is located between Marsh Barton railway station and the Exeter Ship Canal. Part of the site was used as a laydown area when the railway station was being constructed.
The council shared details of the public consultation on the news page of its website on December 17, giving people only until December 31 to respond.
Green councillors called for the consultation to be halted, claiming that more key information was required for people to make informed responses.
The proposed location of The Grace Road Energy Centre
(Image: Exeter Energy Network)
Cllr Andy Ketchin said: “Disposing of precious and diminishing green space requires a cast iron case to be made and the Labour-led council has failed to do this. The sale of this field for an industrial complex goes against the council’s own policies to protect the city’s Valley Parks.
“Furthermore, the information provided to the public is misleading and inadequate. It fails to mention the field is within the protected Riverside Valley Park and gives the impression that this is a brownfield site rather than a green space.
“Neither has there been any Environmental Impact Assessment. This field is a valuable site for nature, and a flood-sensitive area. Exeter City Council has a legal duty to establish the impacts on nature and the environment that will result from this industrial complex before they flog off the site.
”Finally, the council has not checked the developer’s claims that this is the only possible site for the energy plant. I have asked to see details of all 13 alternative potential sites looked at, but the developer has not shared that information.
“The public needs full and accurate information on this proposal so that responses to the consultation are well informed.”
Cllr Ketchin is calling on the council to delay the proposed sale of the Grace Road Fields site until the case has been made to the public that the company have proved there is no alternative brownfield site that could be used.
ECC has previously stated that an assessment of 14 potential energy centre sites across the city was carried out with the proposed location found to be the most suitable.
A proposed energy centre at Grace Road Fields, Exeter
(Image: Exeter Energy Network)
The Grace Road Energy Centre is planned to generate low carbon heat from a variety of sources including heat pumps and utilising waste heat from a data centre and the adjacent Energy Recovery Facility. By connecting to a centralised energy centre, buildings can remove the need for individual gas boilers and it is said the city can enjoy cleaner air with less reliance on imported fossil fuels.
Exeter Energy Network has explained why it has chosen the site in documents provided as part of the consultation.
It states: “An assessment of 14 potential energy centre sites across the city was carried out with the proposed location found to be the most suitable for several reasons. The most important of these is the proximity of the site to a number of potential sources of low-carbon energy: an energy from waste facility which currently produces significant amounts of waste heat; a council-owned solar farm; and the River Exe – latent heat from the river could be used as a source of renewable energy for the project.
“Connecting to at least one of these sources of low carbon energy will reduce the emissions associated with the Exeter Energy Network, whilst at the same time reducing the cost of heat for our customers.”
Other reasons for choosing the site include:
- The proposed site is adjacent to the Marsh Barton Trading Estate, so the Energy Centre will sit alongside the existing light-industrial context
- It is land that has been designated for strategic mixed-use allocation by Exeter City Council in the emerging Local Plan
- The site allows a practical route to connect the Energy Centre to the city via a network of underground hot water pipes
- It is close to proposed housing developments west of the River Exe which will all require low-carbon heating systems to meet building regulations.
It added the project is committed to increasing biodiversity around the site by 20 per cent, which is twice the statutory requirement for such developments. It has assured it will be working with partners such as Exeter City Council and Devon Wildlife Trust, which manages Exeter’s valley parks, to achieve its biodiversity aim.