A new community choir has recorded a song in protest at Anglian Water's plan to build a new Cambridge sewage plant.

The choir is part of the "Save Honey Hill" campaign, which wants to stop the Anglian Water moving its Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant (CWWTP) from Milton to at Fen Ditton.

Anglian Water is running a final consultation on its proposal, which closes on Wednesday (April 23).

An Anglian Water "masterplan" for the site, which sits next to the A14 dual-carriageway, is due to be finalised in summer 2022.

%image(15913340, type="article-full", alt="Some of the protesters fear that the new plant will lead to increased pollution in their area")

%image(15913343, type="article-full", alt=""Poo corner": Save Honey Hill members don't want a new sewage plant in the Fen Ditton and Horningsea areas")

IT-S-CRAP-by-the-Save-Honey-Hill-Community-Choir-f-fffffffff7f34de4

The choir's song - "It's Crap" - makes reference to the size of the proposed plant, light pollution, and potential odour from sewage.

Musician Liz Cotton wrote the song.

On behalf of Save Honey Hill, Liz said: "We are protesting against the unnecessary relocation of Cambridge’s sewage works to Honey Hill, a beautiful, unspoilt site in Cambridge’s Green Belt.

"The climate impact of demolishing one functioning sewage plant and building another, just 1.5 km away, will be enormous."

%image(15913344, type="article-full", alt="The humorous song was recorded as part of the Save Honey Hill campaign")

%image(15913345, type="article-full", alt="Save Honey Hill: "Perhaps they don't like village folk"")

Liz added: "Anglian Water, a billion-pound private company, is being paid £227 million of public money to move its Cambridge sewage plant to Honey Hill on Green Belt.

"Honey Hill is between the villages of Fen Ditton, Horningsea and Quy, and is the entry point to Wicken Fen, the most species-rich nature reserve in the UK.

"It is valuable farmland, full of wildlife, and the site of prehistoric archaeological remains.

"Huge structures will dominate the flat exposed fenland setting with multiple digester towers, over 20 metres high.

"Once operational, an estimated 140 HGV sludge lorries will enter and exit the site daily, clogging already busy local roads, adding to air pollution and compromising the safety of the children cycling to the nearby local primary school in Fen Ditton."

%image(15913347, type="article-full", alt="Save Honey Hill campaigners staging a protest in Horningsea")

The new Anglian Water sewage plant would measure 22 hectares.

Liz pointed out that this would be larger than Wembley Stadium's 11 acre (4.5 hectare) roof.

The choir's music video was filmed at Horningsea church.

Anglian Water wants to relocate its Cambridge sewage plant to make way for a 5,600-home North East Cambridge development, which would sit on land currently occupied by the current works.

As part of its consultation, which began in February 2022, Anglian Water has released plans for odour mitigation, screening visual impacts, and lorry traffic - which would access the site via a proposed new roundabout at the A14 junction 34.

The firm would also create a "discovery centre" for education, and has committed to supporting new residential developments in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire.

%image(15913348, type="article-full", alt="Possible sites listed in early Anglian Water plans. Site three, near Fen Ditton and Horningsea, was chosen")

"Anglian Water is planning to build a modern, low carbon waste water treatment plant for Greater Cambridge," a company statement reads.

"The new facility will provide vital services for the community and environment, recycling water and nutrients, producing green energy, helping Greater Cambridge to grow sustainably."

It adds: "The new facility, as well as being operationally net zero carbon, will be energy neutral.

"The relocation will enable South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council’s long held ambition to develop a new low-carbon city district on Cambridge’s last major brownfield site, known as North East Cambridge.

"It will enable this new district to come forward and deliver 8,350 homes, 15,000 new jobs and a wide range of community, cultural and open space facilities in North East Cambridge.

"The scale of the essential infrastructure needed to ensure the long-term resilience of waste water treatment capacity in Greater Cambridge inevitably means impacts will be felt.

"We recognise and are sensitive to the community’s concerns and questions about this."

According to Anglian Water's construction timeline, technical studies and environmental surveys will be held throughout 2022.

If approved, on-site construction will begin in 2024, and the new plant will be operational by 2028.

The decommissioning process at the old plant is due to start in 2027.

The "phase three" CWWTPR consultation closes on Wednesday, April 27: https://cwwtpr.com/