King Charles gets go-ahead for huge slurry pit on Sandringham estate despite villagers’ concerns over smells

Villagers had raised fears over “safety issues and unpleasant odours” from the slurry lagoon

King Charles’ Sandringham Farms has been given the green light to build a slurry lagoon for fertiliser on the Royal Estate in Norfolk - despite concerns from nearby villagers.

The reservoir will hold nearly 10,000 cubic metres of farm digestate - commonly made from animal and crop waste - and will sit near Prince William’s Sandringham home, Anmer Hall.

Its location on Icknield Way is also near the village of Flitcham, which forms part of the Royal Sandringham Estate, passed on to the king after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. The village’s parish council and locals had raised concerns about the plans at the consultation stage.

“There are concerns regarding safety issues and unpleasant odours affecting the village if the wind were blowing toward the village,” wrote parish clerk Gill Welham on the slurry pit, which will be a 1.5-mile distance from the community.

The proposed location for the slurry pit on the Sandringham Estate. Flitcham is located to the south (off map). Anmer Hall can be seen in the north east corner. (ELG Planning)

One resident also wrote: “At present the farm fertilises the fields using bulk carriers to bring fertiliser to the fields. This works however the odour produced in Flitcham at the time is atrocious.

“There are health concerns in the village concerning this odour especially as there is a primary school and many older people in the village. This proposal, so near to the village would appear to hold the promise that the odour would be an all year concern to the schoolchildren and the villagers.”

Evidence accepted from an agricultural expert, Simon Mosley, said “a single, centralised lagoon” was not reasonably necessary, and that “a distributed network of smaller, well-located stores” would be more appropriate for the area.

However, in their report, a planning officer from King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council said the plans were lawful development, adding that “various measures” will be taken by Sandringham Estates to “control odour impacts”. These include keeping transfer points clean, delivering slurry in enclosed tankers, and only stirred the lagoon “as required”.

A planning statement on behalf of Sandringham Farms said the lagoon would serve a 6,600-acre land holding, which is farmed for wheat, barley and oats. It said the new facility would provide fertiliser to serve the network of fields around the site, and was ideally located to meet the needs.

The lagoon will be “visually contained” by vegetation forming the field boundaries, the document said, and would reduce the need for fertiliser to be imported in from elsewhere during spreading times.

It said: “The current proposals will therefore ensure that the business is more resilient and less exposed to wider market supply issues in sourcing a sufficient supply of fertiliser to meet their spreading requirements. “