ALTON’S Ashdell Residents’ Association has a massive power struggle on its hands as it prepares to fight off an application to build a “huge” gas-fuelled electricity generation plant on land south of Caker Lane (the B3004 Alton to Kingsley road).

While understanding the rationale behind the proposal, to support the National Grid, residents argue that the plant is too big and too industrial with potential for noise and air pollution, and that it will be located in entirely the wrong place.

The controversial application (57820) by Birmingham-based Green Frog Power (GFP II) Ltd is for change of use of a 1.1-acre field from agricultural land to allow for the construction of a gas-fuelled capacity mechanism embedded generation plant to support the National Grid.

The site is located just east of the A31, adjacent to Worldham Golf Club, and on the opposite side of the B3004 to the Alton solar farm.

The closest residents are approximately 240 metres to the north-west, on the opposite side of the A31 dual-carriageway, at Windmill Hill.

If allowed, the plant will comprise 14 generators with exhaust flues (tall chimneys), generating a combined capacity of 20 megawatts a year, a welfare unit, cooling fans, gas metering kiosk, high and low-voltage switchgear cabin, and a spare parts storage container, set behind a 2.4-metre security fence and four-metre high inner acoustic barrier, with new access drive and parking.

Designed in response to a requirement by the National Grid, which claims the need to double its standby peaking capacity by 2020 to provide an additional one gigawatt (1,000 megawatts) year on year to avoid rolling blackouts, the Alton plant would expect to run an average 2,000 hours per year, based on historical data and as projected by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

According to ward councillor Andrew Joy, this would equate to around five-and-a-half hours per day in the evening when solar power is lost and there is peak demand for power.

The proposal would generate four new full-time jobs and produce electricity to support the local grid.

A spokesman for GFP II Ltd said: “The proposal is for critically important national energy infrastructure and ensures that the local community and local businesses have energy security at times of short supply.”

The location has been chosen as, according to GFP, it is one of very few sites with the ability to connect to both the gas and electrical networks, has “as low an impact possible in planning terms” and has “a willing landowner”.

In a planning, design and access statement, it is confirmed that all connections from the site to the network provider will be laid underground and there will be no overhead infrastructure.

And GFP is of the opinion that the proposal, by way of its scale and location, “will not alter the character of the area”.

But residents believe otherwise, fearing the industrial “creep” along the A31 into the countryside and impact on the lives of nearby residents, many of whom were not notified of the application. Furthermore, with no acoustic or air quality reports available they have insisted on an extension to the deadline for comments on the plan.

Speaking on behalf of Ashdell Residents’ Association at an Alton Town Council planning meeting on June 6, Giles Lock said the group felt that there were more suitable brownfield sites on Alton’s industrial estate.

Fearing that the proposed plant would be “massively intrusive” in terms of size and environmental impact, Mr Joy flagged up the fact that not only would it be at risk of flooding from the Caker stream, located in a zone two and zone three flood plain, it would also be on land earmarked by Hampshire Highways for the future installation of a slipway to and from the A31 to link with the B3004 - a point picked up by Hampshire County Council’s Highways Authority which has recommended a “holding objection” to enable the applicant to demonstrate that the proposal would not restrict the A31/B3004 improvement scheme.

Residents have been supported in their views by Alton Town Council, which has objected to the application on grounds of insufficient evidence that there has been consideration given to the potential ecological impact of the development and of the need for an environmental impact assessment, as well as for acoustics and air quality impact assessments.

East Hampshire District Council’s (EHDC) drainage officer has requested a flood-risk assessment to ensure that any additional run-off from the site will not increase flood risk elsewhere.

There have been strong objections too from Worldham Parish Council, in whose parish the site falls, on grounds that the size and the height of the proposed plant is “out of character for a rural setting”.

The parish council points out that the 14 flues will be 24 feet high, from the top of each 10ft generator, giving an overall height of 33ft, equivalent to a four-storey building, while the fenced enclosure would be the size of 12 tennis courts.

The fear is that the increased industrialisation along the B3004 will encroach on and destroy the green corridor that exists between Alton and East Worldham, setting the scene for a merging of village and town.