Prince Louis’ godfather, Harry Aubrey-Fletcher, is facing a wave of backlash from local residents and farmers surrounding his Buckinghamshire estate, after the 44-year-old shared his plans to allow the construction of England’s largest biogas-to-grid facility on his land.
Harry, who has been close friends with Prince William since childhood, is set to lease 15 acres of land to Acorn Bioenergy. The company will use state-of-the-art technology to convert organic matter into biogas, which will then be fed into the national gas grid, providing thousands of homes with renewable gas.
Harry’s big battle
However, he has faced intense opposition to the project, with 1,125 formal objections coming from locals who fear the impact on the roads and countryside.
Residents are concerned that the increase in trucks on local roads will create potholes and endanger drivers, and the facility, named Hornage Green Power, will increase noise pollution, diminish air quality and possibly contaminate waterways. It is estimated that 150,000 tonnes of organic matter will be trucked in each year with the help of 30,000 truck journeys.
© Getty Images“The proposed plant in open countryside will create significant harm to road safety because of the exceptional burden from HGVs on rural roads,” said a spokesperson for the Say No to Acorn group to The Times.
“It will harm the landscape [and] heritage and leaves important questions unresolved about water supply, pollution, odour, noise, technical capacity and environmental benefit.” Local farmer John Brown added that the development was “completely inappropriate”.
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“Don’t be fooled. What is required by the plant will be transported from miles away, and I do not see how the local rural infrastructure will cope with all the increased traffic,” he said.
A considered proposal
Meanwhile, Harry and Acorn Bioenergy shared with The Times that the facility would “help tackle the energy crisis by providing enough renewable gas to heat 9,500 homes”.
They added that the proposal was “in the right place to secure benefits for the rural economy while avoiding harms”, and that they had “listened carefully to feedback from the community”.
“We have designed our proposals to ensure there are no unacceptable impacts on local people while ensuring the best possible proposals for farmers and the environment.”
© Getty ImagesResidents of Buckinghamshire are not the only ones protesting the project; Conservative MP Greg Smith also wrote a formal letter opposing Hornage Green Power.
The local council will gather on Wednesday, September 2, to discuss the proposal and to decide whether to approve the project or not.
© WireImageHarry has been friends with Prince William since their time at Ludgrove School, and the pair attended Eton together. He is one of Prince Louis’ godfathers, as well as Guy Pelly and Nicholas van Cutsem.
The youngest son of Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, eighth Baronet and Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, was also close with Prince Harry, and attended his 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle.
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