Headlines in the B&R this week seem to give the green light for the biomass digester at Great Porthamel Farm at last - but they've thought they were cleared to start before and been wrong.
It must have seemed like a good idea when they started. Farm diversity, green energy - it seemed to tick all the right boxes, and they were having the abbatoir waste delivered to their farm already anyway, to be spread on the fields. Making electricity out of it must have seemed like an obvious next step.
The National Parks authority seems to have gone out of their way to be obstructive, though, and the legal costs mounted. First the planning application was accepted; then the plans were sent back to the committee and this time they were rejected.
An inspector from the Welsh Assembly came down and gave the project permission to go ahead, subject to certain restrictions - but the National Parks wouldn't accept his findings and sought a Judicial Review. Which has just been heard in court - and thrown out by the judge. "I regard this application as unjust and do not consider it can be granted and I dismiss it," he said, also ordering the National Parks to pay legal costs of £14,500.
The Welsh Assembly, meanwhile, has given a grant of £690,000 towards the cost of the digester.
When the digester is finally in operation, it should be able to supply enough electricity to power 300 homes.
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The trouble is the National Park workers have got to justify their job when it genuinely isn't needed. Local councils, accessible and appointed by the people they represent, would be much fitter to oversee planning.
O, and those two figures? Wonder where that money comes from...
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