Site work on Congleton's Community Hydro Project has started this week.

Dane Valley Community Energy will be installing and operating a hydro-electric generation plant on the River Dane at Havannah Weir, Congleton.

The team currently plan to be generating by January/February 2021.

In the Congleton Hydro Team's latest newsletter, the group of volunteers broke the news to the community that the project was progressing nicely.

Alongside an arboriculture and ecological method statement, an education outline plan and boardwalk method statement were considered by Cheshire East Council's planning department in support of an application to discharge ten planning conditions.

These can be viewed on the Cheshire East planning portal.

Following a few refinements, Cheshire East's consultees approved the discharge of all conditions and the project team received the final decision letter to allow them to proceed with construction on July 31st.

In their latest newsletter, the Hydro team praised Cheshire East's planning department stating: "Planners quite often get a lot of stick, but Congleton Hydro would like to express our thanks to Nick Hulland and the team at Cheshire East Planning for their timely and professional expedition of our necessary approvals."

Grahams, the contractor for the Congleton Link Road, has also come up "trumps" and have ensured that the basic construction work on Macclesfield Road, was complete enough to allow site construction traffic to access the field to begin the process of building the access trackway to the actual Hydro site.

The Hydro team added: "Congleton Hydro would like to thank Grahams for their superb assistance in enabling us to reach this goal of ours and Dan Cawthra, their Community Liaison Manager who has kept us informed all the way."

The installation programme for the cable from the site to the Siemens factory has been delayed by a week as the cable itself is now scheduled to be delivered a week late on August 11th.

However, the contractor Dutton's can "accommodate" this delay within their plans, and it will not "affect" the overall programme.

The Regional Communities Energy Fund has now been approved and the agreement signed. The grant will be used to fund the Education Programme development, additional tree removal from the historic structures including the stone arch and island adjacent to the Weir and to prevent further root damage to Ye Olde stonework.

The Environment Agency, even though not requiring a fish pass as part of the main scheme, have since the project's inception expressed a possible interest in a separate structure.

The EA have now funded the examination of three optional designs for a fish pass bypassing the Weir.

These have been completed by the Hydro team's Principal Designer Derwent Hydro as a joint project between Dane Valley Community Energy and the Environment Agency. The EA have selected their preferred option which is now undergoing detailed design and costing.

Essential to the ability to maintain the Hydro System is a boardwalk to provide ease of access to the system itself, the water intake and the surrounding woodland.

The boardwalk is also a key enabler of the delivery of the Education Programme. Underpinning the design and development of both the boardwalk and the Education Programme are two new members to the Hydro Project team.

Leading the boardwalk development (precise route, specification, contractor identification etc) is David Cook.

David graduated as a mechanical engineer from UMIST. He worked with Proctor and Gamble, maintaining process and packaging equipment and then joined their operations research department.

He continued his career for nearly 30 years as a management consultant with PA Consulting Group.

His work, mainly at board level, encompassed business enhancement through customer-focused projects. He has lived in Congleton for 31years. His wife Jill is active in various local sustainability matters.

Spearheading the Education Programme Design, Development and Delivery programme is Peter Lane.

Peter and his family have lived in Congleton since 1987. He was a secondary school science teacher and presently works part-time as an educator with the Stoke Museum Service.

Peter intends to ensure that the educational sessions the team delivers at Congleton Hydro will be attractive, original, provocative and inclusive, illustrating the value both of sustainable electricity generation and of environmental conservation.

Key to the operation of the scheme, is the Electrical generator and the gearbox that couples it to the Archimedes screw.

The screw has been ordered and the team are now able to specify the changes needed to this package i.e. gearbox in/out mounting configuration.

This work is being carried out for us as a special project by Flender in Leeds. The variable speed drive system needs to be programmed with our site-specific attributes (max/min speeds, alarm points for flow, blockage sensors, etc).

Siemens has kindly provided some space in their factory for the team to carry out this work.

It wont be long before the Hydro team can identify the volunteer roles that will be needed to maintain the scheme, the woodland management, and the education programme.

In the meantime, the team would be more than happy for residents to indicate a possible volunteering interest by contacting: [email protected]

The weir, which has been in place for more than 250 years, will be re-used to generate energy from rainwater – making clean, renewable power that will have a positive impact on the environment.