Woodhouse Farm and Hangers

Woodhouse Farm is a listed farmhouse that has been allowed to decay by the developer. However, that has allowed a rich wildlife habitat to develop. Bats roost in the building and the surrounding old orchard trees and grassland is used by many species of birds including owls and birds of prey.

If the waste site went ahead, the farm would be redeveloped, with a large car park constructed. The developer has stated he intends using these not just in connection with the waste site, but also for another extension of the nearby gravel pits.

The surviving two hangers on the airfield are largely intact and are survivors from the time when the airfield was in use towards the end of WW2. Experts in old airfields who visited the site at the unveiling of a commemorative monument in early 2009 stated that the range of surviving buildings is exceptional, and clearly worthy of retention and preservation. Yet there are no plans to protect any of the buildings threatened by the waste site development.

The hanger in this view would be entirely destroyed and the waste buildings proposed are so large that the position from where this photo was taken would be well within the walls of the development. Most of the woodland behind the hanger would be destroyed by deep excavations.

A road would be built across the countryside to service the waste site and incinerator, with over 400 large HGVs a day taking over a million tonnes of waste a year in and out of the site from across Eastern region and potentially further afield, including London