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A planning permission application to build a Bio-Compressed Natural Gas (Bio-CNG) fuelling station for heavy goods vehicles will come before Gwynedd Council’s planning committee on January 13th.
CNG Fuels Ltd aims to locate the station on Parc Bryn Cegin Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Bangor.
The company, headquartered in London, opened “the largest biomethane station in the world” in Avonmouth, near Bristol in March this year. In a statement at the time, CNG Fuels said that the station was large enough to “refuel 80 HGVs per hour”.
CNG Fuels state that companies such as Amazon, Asda, Lidl and Royal Mail are customers who use their green fuel, “to reach net-zero targets and to cut costs”.
The company’s planning permission application was discussed last night in a meeting by the Bangor branch of Extinction Rebellion.
In a statement to our sister site, Corgi Cymru, Dylan Clarke of the group said, “The way I see this is that the company wants to use compressed bio-gas and that’s better than burning diesel”.
The proposed site is, “like a petrol station but selling bio-CNG that comes from a gas grid. They buy the bio-CNG from anaerobic digestors (which are fuelled by food waste) that are located elsewhere. The company’s business model is that they sell gas to lorries that use it to travel up and down the A55”.
According to the planning application, the site will include refuelling pumps to companies registered with CNG Fuels – but not the general public.
Dylan Clarke of the Bangor branch of Extinction Rebellion continues, “The wider picture is that we’re using food waste to create bio-CNG. Common sense tells us we shouldn’t be wasting food in the first place!”
According to Clarke, “People are less likely to waste food if they bought local food and knew how it was produced. However, if chicken is cheaply produced, it’s more likely to be wasted”.
In the application’s supporting documents the company’s Planning Advisor argues that the station would need to be operational 24 hours a day to be viable.
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“We confirm that it’s not viable for CNG Fuels to operate the site with any restrictions on opening hours. The site will service a fleet of goods vehicles which operates around the clock. This is a 24 hour industry and businesses won’t accept any restriction on operating hours.”
Gwynedd Council’s planning officer has recommended approving the plans with conditions.
Parc Bryn Cegin industrial estate on the outskirts of Bangor was developed over 20 years ago and the site remains empty. There were reports last year that the Welsh Government had sold either the entire site or part of it.
The Welsh Government has been asked to confirm whether it still owns the site.
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