2025 Sustain Wiltshire – A year for fast-gassing cells and positively pressured greenhouses

2025 will be an exciting year for Sustain Wiltshire. It will see the construction of prototype fast-gassing cells for the Super-Midden, and the construction of the first positively pressured greenhouse on site.

Towards the end of December, we received an extensive technical query list from our partners DBS for the prototype greenhouse. This has now been returned and we remain on track for construction in the Spring.

Keeping up the good news, on 18th December, Wiltshire Council finally validated our planning application (only the 4-month delay). This means there is no need for the Sustainable Anarchy notice that we were preparing.

Assuming the Council sticks to the statutory 12 weeks for the planning application processing, we should have planning by mid-March. So, we are now commencing the detailed design phase of the fast-gassing cells for the Super-Midden.

A continuing frustration that remains is the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies, which has now informed us that the potential size and ambition of Sustain Wiltshire makes us a ‘special’ case.

It seems that if you want to make a significant, positive difference to the community – rather than to banks or investors – you need to be examined more closely. And yes – that means further delays. It is both flummoxing and frustrating!

On a much brighter note, on 16th January I attended an event at the Swindon Science Café on sustainable plastics and the potential for chemical de-polymerisation. This is a process that will allow the manufacture of new plastics from waste plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled. This technology will be vital for the operation of the Super-Midden and is very much a bright light on the horizon.

Part of the Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST), the Swindon Science Café holds regular events. Here you’ll discover more about the many sustainable technologies that iCAST is developing. Based in Swindon, I’d highly recommend a visit. You can find out more using the link below.

https://icast.org.uk/

Until next time…

Nick Ash