Geothermal rum distillery vows to clean up and protect historic site

The company behind Cornwall’s ambitious £10million geothermal rum distillery plan has vowed it will clean up and restore the site it intends to use, after Historic England raised concerns about the project.

Matt Clifford, founder of the Cornish Geothermal Distillery Company (CGDC), stressed it has the budget to cleanse and spruce up the contaminated and tatty site at United Downs, some of which has been used as a stock car racetrack.

He also said the company had looked at an alternative location and spent more than £100,000 on studies of a landfill site across the road from the preferred location, which showed it would not be suitable.

And he said Cornwall Council is trying to find an alternative site for the stock car business to move to when its lease runs out in October 2021.

The CGDC has applied for outline planning permission for a sustainable scheme, called the Celsius project, to mature and distil rum using heat generated by the UK’s first geothermal power plant at the United Downs site.

The application includes an associated shop, cafe, parking, landscaping, and ancillary functions, powered using geothermal heat from the nearby Geothermal Power project.

The project recently received £75,000 from the Government’s Green Distillery Competition grant scheme for projects which can cut carbon emissions and support new jobs.

As part of the planning process Historic England, the Government’s advisory body on heritage, said it has “strong concerns” about the plan and in a letter submitted to planners at Cornwall Council said it believes the proposed development would damage the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site (CMWHS).

It wants CGDC to look for an alternative site and said that while United Downs appears to be “a barren and rather neglected landscape” its value is associated with the long history and dramatic decline of mining in the area.

But Mr Clifford pointed out that the land is currently in a dilapidated state and includes dumped tyres, spilled oil, rubbish, broken metal and wood and questioned whether a raceway, though a popular amenity, would preserve and protect the important site.

He also raised the issue of whether other organisations have the budget is available to clean up the land and return it to Cornish heathland, whilst preserving and enhancing the mining heritage features for posterity.

“Because that is what our Celsius project would do,” he said, “spend many thousands of pounds cleaning and restoring the land and its features.”

The said the first six acres of the full 26 acre site will cost more than £500,000 to remediate and added: “That’s before we can even begin to build our job-creating, sustainable, rum maturation plant, which would use the waste heat from the United Downs Deep Geothermal Energy scheme and which is backed enthusiastically for research and development by the UK Government’s Green Distillery scheme.”

He said his company had explored the option of using the former United Downs landfill site nearby, but said: “We spent over £100,000 on risk assessments, feasibility studies and plans on the landfill site with Arup, Buro Happold and Grimshaw Architects.

“But the landfill site is a highly complex proposition – an insufficient depth of landfill with uneven subsidence, atop a significant number (more than 80) of unstable historic mine workings.

“It was deemed to present unacceptably high risks, ultimately uninsurable, and therefore commercially unviable for our project. So, when another commercial venture which was considering the United Downs speedway site for a geothermal related project decided not to proceed, we were advised to look there instead.

“We have spent a further £400,000 on the speedway site investigations and developing plans, with our expert partners, for outline planning submission, including comprehensive heritage and ecology reports, etc, which should be decided by Cornwall Council in the next couple of months.

“If we get our outline planning permission we aim to take over the site and begin the process of decontaminating it and , we very much hope working with Cornwall’s World Heritage team, restoring all the precious features which have been neglected and damaged over decades.

“We would love to think that when the G7 leaders come to Cornwall in June, to discuss climate change and the environment, they might like to visit a progressive, sustainable, quality job-creating, joined-up concept of a geothermal hub in one of the most deprived parts of the country.”

The raceway’s lease, negotiated between Purple Cornwall, which operates the track, and landowner Cornwall Council runs to October 2021. The council said it is working with the company to help identify other suitable potential sites for the business after that date.

The council said: “In preparation for when the lease expires in 2021, the council is looking at low carbon and sustainable alternative uses for the site.

“This includes innovative proposals that have the potential to contribute to economic growth and job opportunities in the area, as well as harness the potential offered by the new renewable energy generated by the United Downs Deep Geothermal Power project.

“The council has invested in the geothermal project to generate electricity, but also to power industry and bring employment to the area.

“Whilst also keen to see low carbon development take place within the existing industrial site, the council’s wider ownership in the area gives businesses with larger space requirements the ability to explore the unique opportunity as well.”