Green campaigners hit out at Shropshire chicken farm permission

The barns at Walcot Farm, Lydbury North, near Bishop's Castle, were given the go-ahead by Shropshire Council's south planning committee this week, despite a range of objections both from residents and local organisations.

But councillors on the committee agreed that many of the concerns had been addressed by applicants JW Evans & Son, with an objection by Natural England being withdrawn at the last minute.

Councillors voted the scheme through near-unanimously with only one abstention.

But now John Whitelegg, of the South Shropshire Green Party which objected to the plans, has said it was the wrong decision and councillors failed to take into account "important, long-term polluting effects" while focussing only on the look of the development.

He said objections had also come from Lydbury North and Clunbury Parish Council, Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership, the National Trust, Shropshire Parks and Garden Trust and the Kemp Valley Group along with 15 residents.

They cited concerns over an increase in traffic, odour and the possible pollution of nearby watercourses including the River Clun, which is home to the rare Freshwater Pearl mussel.

He said: "The south planning committee was presented with a large number of sound reasons on planning grounds why this application should be rejected and it chose to ignore them.

"This lack of awareness and lack of interest in asking searching questions does not serve the interests of local residents, habitat and ecology - and the need to protect a nationally important environment from cumulative pollution from agricultural sources."

He said the building of intensive poultry units had seen a "rapid increase" with four going ahead this year in south Shropshire and six more in the rest of Shropshire.

At the Shirehall meeting of the south planning committee on Tuesday, Ian Pick, acting as agent for farm owners JW Evans & Son, told the committee the site was 800 metres from the nearest property, so noise and smell would not cause any problems and modelling carried out with Natural England showed there would be no ammonia impact on local water courses.

Councillor Madge Shineton, representing Cleobury Mortimer, agreed, saying: "Just because a piece of land has the label AONB on it does not mean it should be preserved in aspic – we have to remember it is an AONB because of the people who work there, like this."

Councillor Robert Tindall, for Brown Clee said: "The proposal is not quite as bleak as objectors suggest.

"I think this building will be just fine and we have given permission to units in the AONB before."