The council intends to install the farm at a depot in the village of Waterbeach run by the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service, South Cambridgeshire’s shared waste service with Cambridge city council which collects recycling and waste from around 127,000 households.
The plans are a proposed venture between the two councils, and South Cambridgeshire says the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority indicated last month that it would provide £2.7 million in funding towards the work, “subject to additional checks such as value for money assurances”.
South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge will meet the remaining cost.
The proposed programme includes a solar panel power plant on land adjacent to the depot, along with a battery storage system, charging islands, cabling and other associated works to form a ‘smart micro-grid’.
The plans make up some of South Cambridgeshire’s budget proposals for 2022/23, which include an allocation of £6.83 million to tackle climate change in the district during the upcoming year.
Councillors will vote on the budget proposals at a meeting of the full council on 22 February.
Electric RCVs
South Cambridgeshire has also allocated £1.3 million towards equipment and activities to help tackle climate change at the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service, such as the purchase of new electric RCVs.
In 2020, the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service began using Cambridgeshire’s first electric RCV, a Dennis Eagle eCollect which cost around £400,000 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Two more electric bin lorries are due to begin working across South Cambridgeshire and the city of Cambridge by the end of March this year.
On 26 January, Cambridge city council said there was not enough charging capacity in the depot’s existing local electricity network to meet the requirements of the councils’ programme to replace their diesel RCVs with electric models.
Planning
A spokesperson for South Cambridgeshire told letsrecycle.com that it had existing planning permission for the Waterbeach site.
However, the council says it will speak to the local planning authority to see “how best to proceed” as it looks to develop its plans.
The council may need to submit a new planning application, the spokesperson said, but it is “too early to say”.
Climate emergency
Cllr John Williams, South Cambridgeshire district council’s lead cabinet member for finance, said of the proposed budget: “These positive budget plans put the environment at their heart and demonstrate exactly how we are working to tackle climate change on a very local level in South Cambridgeshire.
“We know that local people quite rightly expect us to be taking action to deal with the climate emergency that we face, and these budget plans are proof of how our ambitions are embedded across the council.”
The council expects its total spend on providing services for the next 12 months to be around £70 million.
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