PROPOSALS for an anaerobic digestion plant at a county quarry have been lodged with East Lothian Council.

GreenForty Development Limited has submitted plans for the development on a 1.8-hectare site at Bangley Quarry, north of Haddington.

Mineral extraction was carried out at the quarry, which is owned by Tarmac, but operations were suspended almost a decade ago. Now, the Edinburgh-based applicant is looking to use the site for an anaerobic digester.

The facility would use a variety of feedstocks – such as grass silage, hybrid rye, straw and vegetable processing residues – to produce renewable gas.

A planning statement submitted to the local authority says: “The majority of feedstocks will be stored off-site, in clamps on the farms where they were grown.

“Brewery and distillery by-products will be procured and delivered as available.

“All feedstocks will be delivered to the proposed development using a ‘just-in-time’ approach, as and when they are required by the digestion process.”

Once the biogas is produced, it would be ‘captured’; with most of it sent to a clean-up plant where it would be purified and upgraded before being put into the gas network.

The residual feedstock material would then be spread on farmland as a bio-fertiliser.

According to the planning statement, the site is suitable for more than half a dozen reasons, including its proximity to local suppliers and the gas network and also due to the quarry terrain acting as a screen, resulting in an “extremely low” visual impact.

It is anticipated the construction stage could create up to 30 jobs, with up to five full-time staff required if the project was approved.

Plans by J Haig Hamilton and Sons for an anaerobic digester on land at Standalane, near Ballencrieff met strong local opposition in 2015.

That scheme was turned down by councillors and an appeal to Scottish Ministers was also dismissed.