Major update on controversial plans for Shropshire chicken farm that could house 160,000 birds

Controversial plans for a chicken farm that could house 160,000 birds have been deferred.

Shropshire Council's Southern Planning Committee was due to consider the proposal in Sheriffhales, near Shifnal, on Tuesday (October 27).

The scheme, on land southwest of Manor Farm, includes four poultry houses, each housing 40,000 birds.

Eight feed bins, a feed-blending room, dead bird store, two underground dirty-water tanks, a biomass boiler house and stack, and an attenuation pond are also included in the proposal.

Birds would be delivered as day-old chicks and reared for approximately 38 days, followed by a 10-day clean-out and preparation period, giving approximately seven and a half ‘flock cycles’ each year.

Birds would be removed at thinning and final clearance stages. The operation would employ two full-time staff.

Poultry manure would be removed after each cycle in sealed or sheeted vehicles and sent to an anaerobic digestion facility. Dirty wash-water would be contained within sealed tanks and removed by licensed contractors.

The development would require an environmental permit before it could operate.

The council’s environmental protection team has concluded the odour effects would be “minimal” because of separation distances, and that normal operational noise would be low.

It has recommended acoustic screening for emergency gable fans and controlling manure disposal.

Highway officers have raised no objection, subject to the delivery of access improvements on the A5.

However, Sheriffhales Parish Council said that, while it recognised the need for agricultural development, it was concerned about the operation and management of the proposed unit, particularly in light of previous issues when there was a pig unit on the site.

Shropshire Council has also received a massive 1,494 objections from members of the public, with only 11 in support.

Objections relate to residential amenity; traffic and highway impacts; adequacy and independence of the environmental information; climate change and greenhouse-gas emissions; manure, litter and digestate management; water quality and agricultural pollution; reliance on other regulatory regimes; and anaerobic digestion and digestate.

Other concerns include water consumption and abstraction; ecology and designated sites; biodiversity and land use; avian influenza and biosecurity; public health; animal welfare; landscape and rural character; economic and employment opportunities; food security and agricultural need; alternative food-production systems; and legal proceedings and precautional approach.

Supporters, meanwhile, say it would contribute to domestic food production, reducing reliance on imported poultry products, the agricultural economy and local employment.

Other benefits, they say, will be the use of modern poultry buildings and management systems designed to control odour, and close links to the A5.

Planning officers have recommended that the application be granted subject to conditions.

However, the committee were told that, since the publication of the report, the council had received a further five detailed representations raising a number of technical matters concerning the environmental assessment which accompanies the proposal.

Therefore, officers asked for the application to be deferred to a future meeting so that the representations can be fully reviewed and responded to.

The committee unanimously agreed.