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Plans to expand a Pembrokeshire biomass-fuel business serving Bluestone, Aberglasney Gardens, Folly Farm, schools, hospitals and Haverfordwest Leisure Centre have been approved.
PBE Fuels Ltd, through agent Hayston Developments & Planning Ltd, sought permission to diversify New House Farm in Canaston Bridge with two storage sheds for biomass fuel and agricultural products.
A supporting statement said the two sheds at the 600-acre New House Farm were needed by PBE Fuels, which produces biomass fuel for clients across Pembrokeshire and neighbouring counties.
It said biomass fuel chips were used by “the larger enterprises including Bluestone and the Bluestone Lagoon (across the road and very much the initiator in the bio-mass fuel business), Aberglasney Gardens, Folly Farm and a Bug Farm, care homes, schools, hospitals and hotels and the Haverfordwest Leisure Centre,” while smaller users burned pellets.
The statement said the farm had grown from 250 acres to 600, while its stone outbuildings now house the offices of the nearby Bluestone holiday complex and rear sheds store agricultural products and biomass materials.
The two sheds would dry and store cereals and biomass, including wood chip, pellets and ‘wet’ wood from forestry, sawmills and smaller operators.
The statement said PBE Fuels, based at New House, “is currently short of facilities for both storage for wood chip and for sawdust and for the means of drying the ‘wet’ wood and sawdust delivered to the site”.
The statement said the New House operation employed 14 people and called for “the proposed expansion of this successful enterprise, which is itself a leading example of sustainability and one that supports the improved sustainability of a wide range of businesses within and adjacent to Pembrokeshire”.
The statement said Bluestone agreed a deal with Mr McNamara in 2005 to find an environmentally and economically sound way to heat the Blue Lagoon Water Park; permission for biomass storage followed in 2007, and it added: “Nearly 20 years later, Mr Ratcliffe [one of the applicants] continues to manage the supply of dry wood chip to heat the Blue Lagoon.”
County planners approved the application subject to conditions.
