Plans submitted to double size of chicken farm to 64,000 birds
Elgan Hearn, local democracy reporter
Fresh plans to double the size of a chicken farm have been revealed, just six months after a previous application was refused.
The application by Tom Hamer and Irene Lloyd of the WL Hamer farming partnership was lodged with Powys County Council in May and was validated and went live on Tuesday, July 22.
The proposal is for a free-range poultry unit to house 32,000 egg laying birds at Upper Bryn Farm which is to the southeast of Abermule.
The plans include the installation of feed bins, formation of vehicular access together with all other associated works.
The farm already has a 32,000-bird poultry unit which also includes a herd of cows and a flock of sheep.
The previous application which had been lodged with the council in 2019.
‘Unacceptable impact’
It was refused by county planners in January on the grounds that it failed to “demonstrate that there would not be an unacceptable impact on highway safety, and that it would cause the deterioration of protected sites in terms of aerial emissions.”
This application was one of a dozen planning applications that have been in limbo for over two years waiting for a decision for Welsh Government planning inspectors to take over the process or not.
Documents lodged with the new application explain changes they have made to the new proposal in a bid to overcome the previous issues.
Gwyn Humphreys of Roger Parry & Partners LLP said: “In response to reason for refusal one, an updated aerial emissions modelling report has been commissioned and accompanies the planning application.
“It is considered the issues and concerns identified by NRW (Welsh Government environment body Natural Resources Wales) and the authority’s ecologist have been overcome.”
Highway safety issues
On the highway safety issues, Mr Humphreys said: “The applicant is now happy to enter into a planning obligation to require the existing and proposed poultry units at Upper Bryn to be tied, to ensure that both units run on the same cycle; thus, reducing vehicle movements along the C2052 public highway.”
Mr Humphreys believes that these changes “satisfactorily overcome” county planners previous reasons to refuse the first application and will have “no reason” to refuse this one.
A decision on the application is expected by September 16.
It emerged that between January and May 2023 all planning proposals for chicken farms in the county were issued with “holding directions” from the Welsh Government.
The first Upper Bryn Farm application was put on hold in March 2023.
This is so that a Welsh Government minister can consider taking charge of the decision-making process after being asked to “call in” the applications.
However, Powys planners were told that they could continue to process the application as normal, and the holding direction did not “prevent” applications being refused.
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In theory this should also create one or two more jobs as well. Not a huge amount but in rural communities jobs can be highly sought after or hard to come by.
Personally I’d prefer it if the entire thing just switched to arable farming, would be much better for the environment and the surrounding landscape looks suitable to me. Wouldn’t do much for the increased traffic of course but if the road is considered unsafe for the increased traffic maybe the council should… actually make the road safe.
How is the waste going to be dealt with? Chicken farms have poisoned the Wye, is the same now going to happen with the Severn?
Exactly the point which occurred to me. In general principle I’m all for enterprising rural businesses expanding because that’s good for the local economy, but the present state of Afon Gwy, allegedly as a consequence of the proximity of large poultry farms, surely has to demand pause for thought.
Everyone who eats chicken, including myself, should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing the cruel ordeal these birds have to endure for us to fill our guts. This type of farming should be stopped by the government and we should stop eating chicken until they do take action.
This is free range, not battery farmed. The farm in question has higher standards than you might expect.
Yeah, sure!! There is free range and free range. How they interpret free range is a thousand miles away from the reality of free range. Chickens running around on a green meadow in the sunshine is not what free range means these days. These business people are in it for the cash not for the comfort of the chickens. I have seen secret filming of free range on television documentaries…… it’s disgusting.
So very true, they can’t fool people when there is tonnes of footage that’s been leaked about what free range really means. Chickens are being gassed now to kill them after they stop laying at 18 months. This practice should be stopped and everyone who wants to eat eggs should rescue the hens and care for them like they deserve. I have 4 that I rescued last week in my garden that are in an absolute state but are now safe thanks to the Fresh start for hens rescue team. Ask yourselves what good will come of this? Greedy farmers… Read more »
This gross industrialisation of agriculture is just storing up problems some of which ,like pollution, are already with us. It’s purely a response to the cost-down antics of the big food retailers who pursue higher profits despite doing very nicely already.
Do we actually need more industrial size chicken farms in Wales?
Exactly. I have never seen a shortage of chickens on the shelves in any supermarket.