STRAW POLL IS ALL WE CAN OFFER

It was good of the Scunthorpe Telegraph to inform us this week that the Brigg Biomass power plant scheme has been amended and re-submitted for council consideration.
However, a check this morning of the online 'applications received' by North Lincolnshire Council, and the planning register, has failed to locate the updated scheme, which is doubtless going through the processing system at the moment.
We need to remember, of course, that although carrying 'Brigg' in the title the proposed site is on old sugar factory land over the border in Scawby Brook (Scawby parish).
Brigg Town Council, as a neighbouring authority, has the right to be consulted and make its views known. Indeed, it did so on the earlier 2008/9 application for the straw-powered station, subsequently withdrawn by the firm concerned.
Whether the new application will result in another round of consultations and more public debate in the Angel Suite, involving opponents (mainly from Scawby Brook) remains to be seen.
Some straw-carrying lorries will come through Brigg if the plant wins approval, but the majority should by-pass the town. It will be a different matter, though, for Scawby Brook. Hence the residents' concerns.
For me it was disappointing to see the company behind Brigg Biomass decide not to proceed with the idea of using barges to take large quantities of straw direct from farmers' fields alongside the Ancholme to a specially constructed unloading stage on the New River.
Perhaps, when we get to view the revised scheme, water transport will be back in the mix, significantly reducing the number of lorries visiting, and leaving, the plant.
Even if that doesn't happen, and it is still proposed all straw comes in by road, the number of trailers heading through Brigg will be a fraction of what we saw pre-M180, pre-A15 link road, and pre-Pedestrianisation Scheme when sugar factory-bound 'bouncing beat' was once a feature of Wrawby Street, Bigby Street and Bridge Street.
The official company name for the development is the Brigg Renewable Energy Plant. The 2020 target for renewable energy in North Lincolnshire is 112MW. The Brigg REP would be capable of providing over one-third of the 2020 target in North Lincolnshire, the firm says.
An earlier statement it released revealed: "Generating electricity from straw makes use of a residue from wheat production. Brigg REP would stimulate a new market for straw that is currently ploughed back into the land. This market would be worth well in excess of £6m to the local agricultural community and create 50 new jobs. Operating the plant will also create 30 skilled jobs."