A visitor centre was established at Flag Fen in 2002, but experts are concerned a proposed development will put people off. Courtesy Toby Fox.
A heritage campaigner has warned that Flag Fen could become the next Thornborough if plans to build a waste processing plant near the famous Bronze Age site succeed.
Since the 1960s the area around the Neolithic henge complex at Thornborough in Yorkshire has been quarried and for some time local organisations have campaigned to have it stopped.
Chair of one such organisation, Time Watch, George Chaplin told the 24 Hour Museum that a vast waste processing plant at Flag Fen could affect the site in the same way as quarrying has affected Thornborough.
"We at Time Watch are very concerned that Flag Fen could be turned into another Thornborough," he said. "Sites like Flag Fen, which are already established as being extremely important, have been invested in," he added, "and because of the investment we’ve already made what we should avoid at all costs is ruining that."
The company behind the planning application is Global Olivine UK, which hopes to build a £250 million 29-acre waste processing plant to recycle waste and turn it into electricity.
The site was discovered by Dr Francis Pryor in 1982. Courtesy Toby Fox.
While George suggested that many of the 20,000 visitors who flock to Flag Fen every year would inevitably be put off by the industrial plant, he also highlighted the potential for damage to archaeology still in the ground.
"We are concerned about the impact on archaeology by things like leakage," he said, "and the impact on the local environment." All this, he added, when instead we should be "turning Flag Fen into our archaeological flagship."
His words follow the concerns, reported by the 24 Hour Museum last week, of Flag Fen Manager Toby Fox: "It’s absolutely on top of us. We are very concerned," he said.
"On a 30-acre site, the amount of rainfall that will hit a concrete slab and be used in the cooling towers will have a direct effect on the surrounding land," he said. "It won’t be keeping the archaeological remains wet. We’re trying desperately to protect our heritage and we feel that this will compromise that."
Heritage experts and members of the Flag Fen team are not the only worried voices. On June 23 it was reported in the city’s Evening Telegraph newspaper that Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson has called for a public inquiry into the plans. The same publication has also run stories relaying the reservations of residents and businesses in the area.
Flag Fen is visited by 20,000 people each year. Courtesy Toby Fox.
According to Peterborough City Council, because it is an electricity generating plant, responsibility for making a decision on the plans falls to the Department for Trade and Industry.
The council’s role is as a consultee, who will advise the DTI on the application.
"As the proposed PREL [Peterborough Renewable Energy Ltd] waste-to-energy development is an electricity generating plant with a proposed electricity output of more than 50 Megawatts, the application is to be determined under the Electricity Act, and will be determined by the Secretary of State for Energy," reads a council statement.
"Peterborough City Council is one of several consultees that will be making comments on the application to the Department for Trade and Industry. The Council will evaluate all aspects of the planning application, including the proposed development’s likely impact on the environment, as well as conformity with planning policy. A report will be submitted to councillors before the council’s views are presented to the DTI."
The 24 Hour Museum tried to contact Global Olivine, but calls and emails were unanswered.
