River Action has said its legal challenge to Shropshire Council over the decision to give planning permission for a major intensive poultry unit aims to halt the spread of industrial scale chicken farming.
The application for judicial review was initiated by, and is funded by, the environmental campaigning group with the aim of preventing pollution by intensive agricultural practices in the River Wye catchment area.
River Action said the Wye catchment area has been “devastated” by the failure to enforce anti-pollution regulations and said it is determined to help prevent similar ecological damage to the neighbouring catchment of the River Severn.
The claimant, Dr Alison Caffyn, lives in Shropshire and is a member of River Action’s advisory board. She is represented by the environment team at law firm Leigh Day.
She is challenging Shropshire Council over its decision in May 2024 to give planning permission for an application by LJ Cooke & Son for a poultry production unit that will include four poultry rearing buildings, each over 100m long, and a biomass store with boilers at North Farm, Felton Butler, Montford Bridge, Shropshire.
The intensive poultry unit would house 230,000 birds, just 400m from an existing poultry site which is believed to house nearly half a million birds.
Objections
River Action said critical objections to the application raised by Caffyn and other local residents were disregarded.
These included the fact that the processing of manure at an off-site anaerobic digestion unit would not cut nitrate and phosphate groundwater pollution as the digestate would still be spread on farmland.
As well as this, objectors said the Hencott Pool and Fenemere protected sites were both in “unfavourable condition” and the development should only be permitted if the “imperative reasons of overriding public interest test” could be satisfied.
Caffyn has applied for judicial review on the grounds that there was:
- A failure to assess the effects of spreading manure and the emissions from burning biomass, which as indirect effects of the development, needed to be assessed;
- A failure to impose a lawful planning condition on manure processing that would mean that the development would not cause groundwater pollution;
- A failure to carry out a lawful appropriate assessment as required by the Habitats Regulations to ensure that the development would not adversely affect the integrity of a designated protected site;
- A breach of regulation 9(3) of the Habitats Regulations, which requires the council to take steps to avoid the deterioration of habitats at protected sites.
“I am delighted to have the opportunity, supported by River Action, to challenge this attempt to impose yet another massive factory farm upon the beautiful Shropshire countryside. Enough is enough,” Caffyn said.
“We simply cannot allow the creation of more of these giant clusters of polluting poultry units. There are already well over 20 million chickens in Shropshire, we don’t need more.
“Before we know it, the River Severn will soon be suffering the same pollution load as the neighbouring Wye – all because of these misguided and ill-informed planning decisions by Shropshire Council.”
Pollution of the River Wye
Chair of River Action, Charles Watson, said: “One of the prime causes of the severe pollution of the River Wye was that when granting planning permission for the recent unprecedented proliferation of intensive factory farming units, the local county councils in Herefordshire and Powys never once considered the cumulative pollution impact that so much animal waste would have on the river catchment.
“Each application was treated as an individual event, with no thought being given to the fact that one of the most concentrated areas of intensive poultry production in Europe was springing up at the very heart of one of the most environmentally protected river catchments in the country.
“Like an appalling car crash in slow motion, exactly the same set of tragic events is now unfolding a few miles away in the neighbouring catchment of the River Severn.
“Shropshire County Council is waving through the planning system more and more huge intensive poultry unit applications, with no due consideration being given of their cumulative environmental impact and, by their own admission, are not even keeping any record of the number of intensive poultry units now operating across the region.”
Watson said River Action is determined to prevent a re-run of the “environmental scandal” of the Wye taking place across another one of the UK’s rivers – hence why it has instigated and is actively supporting this legal action.
Leigh Day environment team solicitor Ricardo Gama said: “So far, the approach that we’ve seen adopted has allowed industrial concentrations of poultry and livestock to be reared in highly protected countryside locations.
“Our client hopes that her claim for judicial review will set a precedent for local authorities across the country determining planning applications for similar developments which will cumulatively have severe impacts on protected sites. She believes that there needs to be a complete rethink of this approach.”
