Recovered Paper Mill - King's Lynn, Norfolk
Client: Palm Group

THE PALM GROUP is the largest privately owned paper company in Germany. It specialises in paper production and recycling.

The vacant British Sugar Factory to the south of King's Lynn was selected by the Palm Group to construct a new paper recycling facility in the UK.

The development is a major project adjacent to the Nar-Ouse Redevelopment Area (NORA). Inward investment is estimated at GBP 340M one of the largest private investments in Norfolk in the last 20 years.

Due to the sensitive nature of the project, a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the area was needed and Harrison Environmental Consulting was employed as the lead consultant for the EIA, and ecological services provider.

This has involved: -

• Technical oversight
• Co-ordination of the work done by other consultants
• Habitat survey and desk study to identify potential ecological receptors
• Initial ecological impact assessment for the scoping report
• Surveys for the following protected species group; great crested newts, reptiles, bats, water voles and breeding birds
• Ecological supervision of site investigation works
• Mitigation planning to address a number of issues including the loss of reedbed habitat and potential disturbance to nesting marsh harriers
• Habitat enhancement to benefit grass snakes and common lizards
• Translocation of reptiles and amphibians
• Consultation with statutory authorities and local conservation groups including Natural England, the Environment Agency and Norfolk Wildlife Trust throughout the course of the project
• Assessment of impacts on ecological receptors for the Environmental Impact Assessment accompanying the planning application

We received positive feedback to our mitigation proposals from Natural England and Norfolk Wildlife Trust and no objections were raised to the planning application on ecological grounds. This culminated in the production of the Environmental Statement, which was submitted to the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk along with the planning application.

We are now very pleased to announce that, on 20th November 2007, planning permission for the project was granted.