The planning application

Arla’s project team liaised with officers from Aylesbury Vale District Council and Buckinghamshire County Council and other statutory consultees to agree the scope of the project.

In addition to the dairy, outline applications have been submitted proposing space to create a small business park, which could provide an opportunity for some of Arla’s suppliers to locate at the site. This would positively benefit the environment as it offers the potential to reduce the number of road miles suppliers to the dairy would have to travel as well as creating between 500 and 1,000 additional jobs.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Comprehensive EIAs were submitted with the applications. These determine the significance of any effects and incorporate extensive solutions to remove any effects altogether or to reduce them to a minimum level.

In terms of the dairy EIA, this includes mitigation measures to ensure that any noise from the site is kept similar to the current base line readings and measures are incorporated to ensure minimum light trespass.

Landscaping

There will be 32 acres of new planning, providing a 20 – 80 metre wide landscape buffer around the site. This will include native and locally occurring species such as Oak, Ash, Silver Birch and the rare Black Poplar that is indigenous to the area, as well as evergreens such as Scots Pine.

Environment

Arla is aiming to achieve zero carbon and zero waste to landfill for this dairy. Advanced construction techniques, process technologies and renewable energy solutions will be used. Water and energy consumption will be minimised and anaerobic digestion will turn waste into energy.

The building could be a beacon for inward investment and a showcase of sustainable development helping to reinforce a budding environmental cluster in the county.

Arla is at the forefront of environmentally-friendly technology and is actively involved in the Carbon Trust’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator programme.

Transport

Transport is one of the most crucial elements of the planning application. Arla has included road improvements, routing and mitigation measures to minimise the effect on the road network.

A Transport Assessment has been prepared as part of the planning application. This proposes a number of initiatives including, but not limited to:

• A routing strategy (Click here to see the proposed Arla lorry routes showing the number of lorries per hour on each route, once the dairy reaches capacity)
• Fitting all Arla vehicles with trackers, ensuring they only use agreed routes.
• Ensuring Arla and construction lorries use strategic routes, not local village roads.
• Introducing a new shuttle bus service for employees.
• Arla vehicles avoiding the roads in Aylesbury town centre in our routing strategy.
• Arla vehicles not using the A413 to Amersham.
• Routing as many Arla lorries as possible onto the A41 towards London as this bypass has a two way daily capacity of approximately 75,000 vehicles and currently has a two way flow of around 23,000 vehicles.
• Undertaking car sharing initiatives for colleagues.
• Timing shift patterns to minimise the need for staff to travel during peak hours.
• Incorporating electric car charging points at the dairy.
• Seeking to attract suppliers to the proposed commercial buildings to reduce the number of overall road miles travelled.
• Proposing highway investment to improve the flow of traffic into and out of Aylesbury including signalising and improving the A41 roundabouts at Oakfield Road/King Edward Avenue and Bedgrove/Broughton Lane. Currently, these junctions do not have sufficient capacity and are a major cause of congestion into and out of Aylesbury.

All of the planning application documents can be viewed on the Aylesbury Vale District Council website.