Disappointment as chicken farm bid returns near Bridgnorth
An action group has expressed its disappointment in learning a revised application for a poultry farm near Bridgnorth has been submitted, after the original proposal was quashed by some of the country's most senior judges.
The Tasley Action Group said the new proposal to Shropshire Council, which is for more than 1.5 million broiler chickens to be reared at Matthew Bower's Footbridge Farm in Tasley, does not deal with a number of problems associated with the original plans.
The new proposals will see the 2,300 tonnes of chicken litter produced by the farm each year put into a biodigester and used for energy production, rather than being spread as fertiliser on farmland close to residential areas on the west side of Bridgnorth.
George Edwards, spokesperson for the campaign group, said: "If built, this chicken factory will chuck out poisons every day for 50 years. Every six-to-seven weeks, they’ll take a quarter of a million birds away for slaughter and clear out the four sheds, each of which is bigger than Sainsbury’s supermarket in Bridgnorth.
Change
"Now is the time to object. We must not leave it until after it’s built. It’ll be too late then. We need people to have their say now. Every one counts, every one makes a difference. Together we can make a change."
The original application approved by Shropshire Council was quashed at the Court of Appeal in May by three of the country's senior judges.
The court ruled that the pre-planning consent assessment of the smell and dust impact on local residents caused by the disposal of chicken manure on nearby fields was not properly considered by Shropshire Council when it approved the plans.
The resubmitted application must now be considered again by the council.
