Say no to an industrial biogas plant in the Cotswold Lakes.
The future of this special place is not secure.
Wiltshire Council refused planning permission, but we believe the decision could be imminently overturned at appeal. We have very little time to make our case.
Protect the Lakes is bringing together independent planning, technical and legal expertise, so the concerns of local residents, businesses and visitors are properly represented.
We are fundraising to prepare a defence because of the impact this biogas plant could have on our communities.
What's proposed?
Understand the scale and location of the industrial biogas development and why it has raised concerns.
What's at risk?
Discover what makes the Cotswold Lakes special for wildlife, local communities, businesses and visitors.
How you can help
Find out how we're preparing for a potential appeal and how your support can help fund independent expertise.
One Decision. No Second Chance.
For our lakes, our communities and our future.
- A thriving natural environment
- Stronger communities
- A sustainable local economy
- Clean waters for future generations
Latest news
About us
Local people who care about the Cotswold Lakes.
Who is Protect the Lakes?
Protect the Lakes Ltd has been set up by local people who care about the future of the Cotswold Lakes. Supported by local Parish Councils (Ashton Keynes, South Cerney and Somerford Keynes), we want to ensure local concerns about the proposed biogas plant are properly represented.
Our four directors are all unpaid volunteers. They include long-term residents of South Cerney and Somerford Keynes, someone who runs a well established local business, and a second-home owner on the Lower Mill Estate.
We are not for profit. The funds we raise will be used to commission independent experts and appoint legal representation, so we can present the best possible case to the Planning Inspector. We rely on donations from the parish councils, local people, businesses, holiday home owners and everyone who loves the lakes.
We want the Inspector to hear the whole story about this place, from people who know it well, backed up by evidence.
What's proposed
A site the size of ten football pitches, on a hillside above the lakes.
About Acorn Bioenergy's proposal
Acorn Bioenergy is proposing a large-scale anaerobic digestion (biogas) plant on the edge of the Cotswold Lakes, between Ashton Keynes and South Cerney. Covering an area equivalent to around ten football pitches, the plant would be built into the hillside at Ashton Down, on farmland west of Ashton Road and north of Lake 62.
It would process 91,000 tonnes of agricultural waste each year, including 15,000 tonnes of chicken litter transported from the Wye Valley. The plant would produce biomethane gas (there is no gas grid connection on site, so the gas would be taken by road tanker to Acorn's gas injection hub at Banbury, in north Oxfordshire) and digestate for use as fertiliser.
The proposals have attracted widespread local opposition, including objections from residents, parish councils and people who enjoy the lakes.
In July 2026, Wiltshire Council's Strategic Planning Committee voted to refuse planning permission, despite planning officers recommending approval.
Why was planning permission refused?
On 16 July 2026, Wiltshire Council refused planning permission for the proposed biogas plant, despite planning officers recommending approval.
The Council's decision notice set out three reasons for refusal.
1. Significant harm to the landscape
The Council concluded that the plant's industrial scale, height and alterations to the land would cause significant harm to the “locally valued Cotswold Water Park landscape”.
It would “introduce an incongruous industrial form of development into a prominent rural location”, harming the area's character, openness and tranquillity. Important views, including those from the public footpath across Ashton Down, would be affected, and the proposed landscaping would not adequately reduce the impact.
2. Insufficient information about traffic
The Council found that Acorn had not provided “a sufficiently robust Transport Assessment”.
There were unanswered questions about the routes vehicles would take, seasonal and peak traffic levels, the effectiveness of proposed traffic controls and the impact on the wider road network, including across the county boundary into Gloucestershire.
Acorn's own figures indicated 76 to 88 lorry and tractor movements a day for much of the year, rising to 160 movements a day at the summer and autumn harvest peaks.
3. No completed agreement to protect skylarks
The legal agreement needed to secure replacement habitat for skylarks had not been completed when the decision was made.
The Council acknowledged that this issue could potentially be resolved.
What happens next?
Acorn Bioenergy has until 16 January 2027 to appeal the decision.
If an appeal is lodged, an independent Planning Inspector will reconsider the application and decide whether planning permission should be granted.
The proposal in numbers
| Application | PL/2023/03359 |
|---|---|
| Applicant | Acorn Bioenergy |
| Where | Land west of Ashton Road, Ashton Keynes (Ashton Down) |
| Site | About 7 hectares, roughly ten football pitches |
| Tallest part | 16.5 m to the top of the post-digester dome. That's nearly four double-decker buses stacked up. The two main digester tanks are each 45 m across and 9 m high, with flat tops. |
| Feedstock | 91,000 tonnes a year |
| Running | 24 hours a day, 7 days a week |
| Lifetime | 25 years |
| Gas | About 10 million m³ of biomethane a year, taken by road tanker to Acorn's gas injection hub at Banbury, as there is no grid connection on site |
| Traffic | 76 to 88 lorry and tractor movements a day for most of the year, about 160 a day at the harvest peak (Acorn's figures) |
| Building it | About 70 weeks, with around 7,300 lorry deliveries |
| Decision | Refused, July 2026 |
| Now | The appeal deadline is 16 January 2027. Help us prepare before it's too late |
What is anaerobic digestion?
Anaerobic digestion uses bacteria to break down crops, manure and other organic materials in sealed tanks without oxygen. The process produces biogas, which can be converted into renewable energy.
At the proposed Acorn Bioenergy plant, the raw materials would include maize, rye and grass silage, along with straw, manure, slurry and chicken litter.
These materials would be fed into large sealed tanks (two main digesters and a domed post-digester), producing two main products:
- Biogas, which is processed into biomethane, a gas similar to natural gas, and taken by road tanker to Acorn's hub at Banbury for injection into the gas grid.
- Digestate, a nutrient-rich liquid and solid material that can be used as agricultural fertiliser.
What else does the process involve?
Large-scale anaerobic digestion plants need careful management of vehicle movements, noise, odours, emissions and water quality.
At the proposed site:
- Digestate storage: liquid digestate would be stored in two covered lagoons, with a combined capacity equivalent to approximately six Olympic-sized swimming pools.
- Silage storage: crops would be stored in three large concrete storage areas, known as silage clamps, each roughly the length of a football pitch.
- Silage effluent: stored silage can release a highly polluting liquid called silage effluent. Acorn proposes to collect this liquid and feed it into the digesters.
These are all important considerations when deciding where a large industrial facility should be located.
Our position
We are not opposed to anaerobic digestion as a technology. Our case is about the unacceptable risks of putting a plant of this scale in this place, so close to the Cotswold Lakes.
Who is Acorn Bioenergy?
Acorn Bioenergy is a UK company building a network of AD plants that make biomethane and capture carbon dioxide for industry. Since 2022 it has been controlled by Qualitas Energy, a Madrid-based investment firm that manages renewable energy assets across Europe and the Americas.
Qualitas bought Acorn through its fifth investment fund, as part of a move beyond solar and wind into newer technologies. Acorn has around a dozen AD plants in development across the UK. The first, Three Maids near Winchester, opened in September 2025.
Its owners say they expect Acorn to become “the leading biomethane and green-CO2 platform in the UK”.
What's at risk
A place people made, and a place people love.
A landscape shaped by water
The Cotswold Lakes, formerly known as the Cotswold Water Park, are a network of around 180 lakes covering 42 square miles along the Wiltshire and Gloucestershire border.
They're home to thriving communities and a much-loved destination for walking, sailing, swimming, paddleboarding, fishing, cycling and triathlons. South Cerney parish alone has around 1,000 lakeside holiday homes, and the area attracts an estimated one million visitors each year, supporting many local businesses and jobs.
The lakes are also nationally important for wildlife. In 2021, Natural England extended the Cotswold Water Park Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) to include 177 lakes, recognising their importance for wintering birds and rare aquatic plants. More than 35,000 waterbirds spend the winter here.
Much of this remarkable wildlife depends on the lakes' clear, nutrient-poor water. These conditions allow rare stoneworts and other aquatic plants to thrive, but also make the lakes particularly sensitive to changes in water quality, especially increases in nutrients.
To find out more about the wildlife and nature of the area, visit the Cotswold Lakes Trust, which looks after the lakes for wildlife and people, and the Cotswolds Rivers Trust, which works to restore the rivers of the Cotswolds, including the infant Thames.
From gravel pits to a thriving wetland
Most of the Cotswold Lakes didn't exist a century ago. Gravel extraction expanded rapidly in the second half of the 20th century. As the gravel was removed, the pits filled with water, creating the lakes we see today.
We are now benefiting from decades of positive planning, combined with careful work from landowners, conservation groups and local communities, all of whom have helped transform this former industrial landscape into lakes, reedbeds, meadows and woodlands. A place where wildlife thrives and people live, work and enjoy the outdoors.
It has taken generations to shape this landscape. Its future deserves the same care.
The Cotswold Lakes in numbers
The wrong place for a plant like this
It's the location, and the risks that come with putting this plant here, that concern us.
The plant would be:
- a 7-hectare site, dug into the side of Ashton Down
- processing about 91,000 tonnes of material a year
- running around the clock
- about 300 m from the nearest part of the SSSI (Acorn's own figure)
- about 350 m from the new homes at King's Water and 500 m from Saxon Meadow in South Cerney (Acorn's figures)
- bringing 76 to 88 lorry and tractor movements a day, and about 160 at harvest
- sending its gas away by road tanker to Banbury
We think the following are key areas that need scrutinising.
The landscape
Wiltshire's own senior landscape officer put it plainly: "The site is not considered to be a suitable location for a development of this industrialising nature and scale."
Traffic
These lanes already carry summer visitors and will soon carry lorries from the newly approved Wheatley's Farm Quarry and traffic from the Steadings and King's Water developments (about 2,400 new homes in total). What happens when the plant's lorries and tractors, rising sharply at harvest, are added on top? Each may look manageable on its own, but together they add up, and that combined effect needs to be properly assessed.
Wildlife
Could important habitats and species be harmed, and has that been properly looked at?
Water
The lakes here are old gravel pits filled by groundwater, and the ditches, gravel, streams, rivers and lakes are all connected. The site lies in a groundwater Source Protection Zone, and Acorn's own Flood Risk Assessment found groundwater just 1.4 m below the surface, with a roadside ditch giving a pathway to the SSSI lakes nearby. What happens if silage effluent or digestate gets into that water?
People
What would a plant that never switches off mean for the people who live, work and go to school nearby?
The planning appeal
What happens next, and what we're doing about it.
How a planning appeal works
Acorn has six months from the Council's decision, until 16 January 2027, to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
If they do, an independent Planning Inspector looks at the application afresh and makes the final decision. The Inspectorate decides how the appeal is run: in writing, at a hearing, or at a public inquiry.
If it goes to a public inquiry, we'll apply for what's called Rule 6 status. That lets a local group take part as a main party alongside Acorn and the Council. We can put in our own evidence, call expert witnesses and question Acorn's.
If the appeal is decided in writing or at a hearing, we'll still send the Inspector our evidence and expert reports, so the work we do now is useful either way.
We're bringing together planning, legal, environmental and technical expertise, so the Inspector properly understands what this would mean for the lakes and the people around them.
Time is short
Once an appeal starts, things move quickly. Whether it is decided in writing, at a hearing or at a public inquiry, our evidence has to be ready within weeks. The expert work we commission now will be needed whichever route the Planning Inspectorate chooses. That's why, with the support of the parish councils and some local businesses, a small team of volunteers has already started the work and begun lining up the experts we need. We can only appoint them with your donations.
News
Updates on the appeal, the campaign and things going on locally.
Get involved
The Council said no. Help us keep it that way.
Help us make the strongest possible case
If the developer appeals, we want to make sure the concerns of local communities are properly heard and supported by sound, independent evidence.
That means bringing in experienced professionals who can advise us on planning and legal matters, traffic, ecology, water quality, noise and the wider environmental impact of the proposal.
Your donation will help us:
- Obtain the planning and legal advice we need
- Commission independent expert assessments
- Examine the developer's evidence and challenge it where necessary
- Present a strong, well-supported case to the Planning Inspector
Every contribution, large or small, will help us give the Cotswold Lakes the best possible chance of being protected for the future.
Could you give us some time?
You don't have to give money to make a difference. We need help with research, fundraising, events, social media, design and posting leaflets.
Whether you've got ideas for fundraising events, specialist knowledge or just a couple of hours now and then, we'd love to hear from you.
Button not opening your email? That depends on how your device is set up. Use whichever of these suits you, and tell us how you’d like to help.
Our address: enquiries@protectthelakes.com
Join our mailing list
Show your support and let us know if you would like to be kept informed about the appeal, local events and ways to help.
What you're signing up to
We'll send you occasional emails about the appeal, local events and ways to help, including requests for donations. Donating is always optional. We won't sell or share your details, and you can unsubscribe using the link in any email.
Donate
Every donation helps us get ready for the appeal.
Help us raise up to £100,000
If the appeal goes to a public inquiry, we could need to raise up to £100,000 to run a full case with legal representation. Every gift helps, whatever its size, but we need to raise a large sum to do this properly.
We're run entirely by volunteers, so every donation goes into the campaign: the planning, legal and technical expertise the appeal needs, and the everyday costs of building the campaign and keeping people informed, like leaflets, events and this website.
Donate by bank transfer
- Account name
- Protect the Lakes Ltd
- Sort code
- 82 12 08
- Account number
- 10345139
- Reference
- Your surname + DONATE
Using a reference helps us match your gift and say thank you.
Card donations are opening very soon. In the meantime, please use bank transfer above. Thank you.
About your donation
Donations are made to Protect the Lakes Ltd, a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales. We use them to fund the appeal against the Acorn Bioenergy anaerobic digestion plant proposed at Ashton Down, Wiltshire (planning reference PL/2023/03359), including planning and legal advice, expert evidence and campaign costs.
We're a not-for-profit company rather than a charity, so we can't claim Gift Aid on donations.
Donations are voluntary and are not refundable once made, except where there has been a mistake, such as a payment taken twice or the wrong amount entered. If that happens, or you have any question about a donation, email enquiries@protectthelakes.com and we will reply within five working days. If we cannot resolve it, you can also contact your card issuer.
We use Stripe to take card payments, and we do not see or store your card details. Our privacy policy explains how we use the information you give us.
Thank you. It really does make a difference.
Join our mailing list
Keep up with the appeal, local events and ways to help.
What you're signing up to
We'll send you occasional emails about the appeal, local events and ways to help, including requests for donations. Donating is always optional. We won't sell or share your details, and you can unsubscribe using the link in any email.
What we'll keep
Your email address and name, and your answers to the sign-up questions: your connection to the area, the village or town you live in, and whether you have already donated (each has an “Other” or “Prefer not to say” style choice). You can also tell us how you heard about Protect the Lakes, but that one is optional. We use your answers to see how people find us, to decide where to put leaflets and posters, and so that we don't keep asking people who have already donated to give again. Protect the Lakes Ltd looks after your details, and uses them only to send you campaign updates. Emails are sent through Mailchimp, an email service based in the United States. The Mailchimp account belongs to Protect the Lakes Ltd. There is more about this in our privacy policy.
How to leave
Use the unsubscribe link in any email we send you, or email enquiries@protectthelakes.com at any time and we'll remove you.
The full details are in our privacy policy.
Prefer not to use the form? Email enquiries@protectthelakes.com and we'll add you.
Privacy policy
How we look after your information.
Last updated: 17 October 2026
Who we are
Protect the Lakes Ltd is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales (company number 17441419). Our registered office is Lake 32 Outdoor Centre, Spratsgate Lane, Shorncote, Cirencester GL7 6DF. We are a not-for-profit company run by volunteers. We are the “controller” of the personal information described here, which means we decide how and why it is used.
If you have any questions about this policy or your information, email enquiries@protectthelakes.com.
What we collect and why
If you join our mailing list
We collect your email address, and your first and last name, so we can send you updates about the appeal, local events, ways to help and requests for donations (donating is always optional).
To join, you need to give your email address, your first and last name, and answer three short questions: what your connection to the area is, which village or town you live in, and whether you have already donated. There are answers such as “Other”, “Somewhere Else” and “Prefer not to say” if none of the choices suits you. A fourth question, how you heard about Protect the Lakes, is optional. We use your answers to see how people find out about us, to decide where to put leaflets and posters, and so that we don’t keep asking people who have already donated to give again.
We do this only because you asked us to (your consent). You can change your mind at any time, using the unsubscribe link in any email.
If you email us or volunteer
We keep your message, your email address and anything else you tell us, so we can reply and, if you offer to help, get in touch about it. We do this because it is necessary for running the campaign and answering people who write to us (our legitimate interests).
If you donate
If you pay by bank transfer, we see the name, amount and reference that appear on our bank statement. If you pay by card, the payment is handled on Stripe's own secure page and we never see your card details. We receive your name, the amount and, if you give it, your email address. We keep donation records because the law requires us to keep proper accounts (legal obligation).
When you visit this website
We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, and we do not use website analytics. If you arrive by scanning a QR code on one of our posters or flyers, the site briefly notes which one (for example “flyer”) in your browser's temporary storage, so that we can see which printed material is working. It is not linked to you and is cleared when you close your browser tab. Our hosting company may keep basic technical records of visits (such as the date and your IP address) for security and to keep the site running.
Who sees your information
Only the directors and the few volunteers who need it to run the mailing list, answer enquiries and keep our accounts. We never sell your information, and we never share it for anyone else's marketing.
We use these companies to run the campaign. They handle information on our behalf and only as we instruct them:
- IONOS, for our website, email and file storage;
- Stripe, for card donations;.
- Mailchimp, which sends our mailing-list emails. The Mailchimp account belongs to Protect the Lakes Ltd. Mailchimp is based in the United States, so your details may be stored and processed there. Mailchimp is certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, and its contract with us includes standard contractual clauses. These are legal safeguards for personal data sent outside the UK.
We may also share information if the law requires us to.
Businesses and organisations
We also keep contact details of businesses and organisations we approach about the campaign, such as a work email address and the person’s role. We use them because it is in the campaign’s legitimate interests to contact them. We keep these details only for the campaign, and you can ask us to delete them at any time.
How long we keep it
- Mailing list, including your answers to the sign-up questions: until you unsubscribe, or two years after we last had contact with you, whichever comes first. We then delete your details, keeping only your email address on a list of people not to contact again, if we need it to make sure you are not re-added by mistake.
- Emails, enquiries and contact details of businesses and organisations: two years after we last hear from you.
- Donation and accounting records: six years, as tax law requires for company records.
Your rights
You have the right to ask us:
- for a copy of the information we hold about you;
- to correct anything that is wrong;
- to delete your information;
- to stop or limit how we use it;
- to object to how we use it;.
- to withdraw your consent at any time, for example by unsubscribing.
To use any of these rights, email enquiries@protectthelakes.com. We'll reply within one month.
If you're unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll put the new version on this page and update the date at the top.
Thank you
Your support makes a real difference.
Thank you for donating to Protect the Lakes. Every gift helps us bring in independent planning, technical and legal expertise to make the case for the Cotswold Lakes.
If you paid by card, Stripe will email you a receipt. If you gave by bank transfer, we’ll match your reference and say thank you.