King Charles gets go-ahead for huge slurry pit on Sandringham estate despite villagers’ concerns over smells
King Charles’ Sandringham Farms has been given the green light to build a mud lagoon for fertilizer on the Royal Estate in Norfolk, despite concerns from nearby villagers.
The reservoir will hold around 10,000 cubic meters of farmyard manure, usually made up of animal and crop waste, and will be located near Anmer Hall, Prince William’s Sandringham home.
Its location on the Icknield Road was built by Queen Elizabeth II. It is also near the village of Flitcham, which forms part of the Royal Sandringham Estate, which is transferred to the king after Elizabeth’s death in 2022. The village’s district council and local residents had raised concerns about the plans during the consultation phase.
“There are concerns about safety issues if the wind blows towards the village and concerns about unpleasant odors affecting the village,” parish clerk Gill Welham wrote of the slurry pit, which would be 2.5 miles from the community.
One resident also wrote: “Currently the farm fertilizes the fields using bulk carriers to bring manure to the fields. This works but the smell at Flitcham back then was awful.”
“There are health concerns about this smell, especially as there is a primary school and a large number of elderly people in the village. This proposal, so close to the village, seems to promise that the smell will be a problem for school children and villagers all year round.”
Evidence from agronomist Simon Mosley said a “single, central lagoon” was not reasonably required and that a “distributed network of smaller, well-located stores” would be better suited for the area.
But a planning officer from King’s Lynn and West Norfolk District Council said in their report that the plans were a legal development, adding that “various measures” would be taken by Sandringham Estates to “control odor impacts”. These include keeping transfer points clean, distributing sludge in closed tankers, and mixing the lagoon only “when necessary.”
In the planning statement made on behalf of Sandringham Farms, it was stated that the lagoon will serve 6,600 acres of land where wheat, barley and oats are grown. It was stated that the new facility will provide fertilizer to serve the field network around the site and is in an ideal location to meet the needs.
The document stated that the lagoon would be “visually controlled” by the vegetation that forms the field boundaries, reducing the need for fertilizer to be imported from elsewhere during times of expansion.
He said: “Current proposals will therefore enable the business to be more resilient and less exposed to wider market supply issues in ensuring adequate fertilizer supplies to meet expansion requirements.”
