Official statement from ARLA Foods to the proposed waste facility by Hills Group

The official statement from ARLA Foods reads as follows:

Energy from Waste facility proposed

by Hills Group for Westbury

"This statement relates to the energy from waste facility proposed by Hills Group to be built adjacent to

our site at Stephenson Road in Westbury. For the reasons set out below, we are deeply concerned about

the likely impact of our proposal on our site and on the wider dairy industry, which is why we have now

(March 2021) formally objected to planning permission being granted.

Arla has consistently paid close attention to the various proposals brought forward by Hills to deal with

waste due to the potential implications for our business. To put this in context, if it is built the new facility

will be immediately next door to our dairy, which was established in 2002 and is the biggest manufacturing site for butter in the country. We receive raw milk direct from our farmer-owners and from other dairy

companies and cream from sites owned by Arla and others. Each year we produce 60,000 tonnes of butters and spreads for the retail market as well as 20,000 tonnes of butter in 25kg blocks used by other food

manufacturers, and up to 55,000 tonnes of skimmed milk and buttermilk powders. Our intake amounts

to around five percent of all of the milk produced in the UK. The dairy employs approximately 250 people.

Our site operates 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, and utilises a process to skim whole milk leaving cream

for butter production and simultaneously to dry the skimmed milk into powder. This means that having

constant access to very large volumes of clean air for our dryer is critically important: if the air supply is

compromised in any way by emissions that contain noxious gases, bioaerosols or odours we would simply

have to suspend production and may be left with unsaleable product. We believe that Hills' proposals

pose a serious risk to the air quality we need.

To be clear: if the energy from waste site receives the appropriate permits from the Environment Agency

that will only give reassurance that during normal operations its emissions will not be harmful to human

or ecological receptors. Our concern is that low levels of even theoretically 'safe' emissions and odours

could still affect the air supply and force us to suspend operations. In addition, there has been far too little

consideration given to the events of plant failure, unexpected or unplanned shutdowns and their consequences on our dairy. The fact is that the impact on our site, on the local community, on Arla more widely,

and on the UK dairy sector as a whole of repeated shutdowns would be highly significant and damaging.

Given the large volumes of food being produced at the site any suspension of production would have a

major financial impact; we have estimated that every hour offline would cost £11,000. As a farmer-owned

cooperative any financial harm to our business would adversely affect our farmers, 2,200 of whom are in

Great Britain, and could shape decisions we make in future about investment in the facility, relative to

other locations. There is the potential that, over time, the dairy could become unviable.

Any threat to the future of the dairy would of course be devastating to colleagues working there; it would

also severely affect the local community. Our major investments in the site have secured its future and

made it a major employer in the area. Westbury is the home of Anchor butter, and many have said that

our site is an iconic symbol and a source of pride for the whole town.

Disruption at Arla Foods, Westbury, would have far wider ramifications. The sheer scale of the site and

the fact that our products have a far longer shelf life than fresh milk, means that Westbury plays a critical

role in balancing supply and demand at a national level. This is particularly the case when volumes of milk

produced on farm are high during the Spring milk flush, and during the Christmas period when lower consumption of fresh milk results in surplus supply being redirected into milk powder production. The

balancing effect of milk powder drying is also strategically crucial in managing industry volatility created

by changes in the overall national herd size, weather, milk yields and consumer trends. Moreover, our

powder products are key ingredients for many other household-name brands made by businesses in the

UK and overseas. In short, if Westbury cannot operate as normal the impact will be felt across Arla and

across the entire dairy industry.

It is worth noting that these matters are set out clearly in the Council's adopted Waste Site Allocations

Plan. This document allocates the site for waste uses, but these do not include energy from waste incineration and specifically requires any application to address fully the impacts such as odour and bioaerosols, noting the particular sensitivity of Arla Foods, Westbury, and stating at page 64 that: "Any new facilities must not prejudice the existing industrial and commercial units (including the dairy) already permitted within the site boundary."

For all of these reasons we have tried over several months to engage constructively with Hills Group, including through the planning process, to address our concerns. These discussions have not made substantive progress. Given the obvious sensitivity of our operations, specifically our reliance on abundant

supplies of clean air, and our growing understanding of the way the energy from waste plant will operate,

we are now convinced that locating a facility of this type next to a dairy cannot be appropriate. We are

therefore firmly opposed to the company's application for planning permission."