Controversial Bridgnorth chicken farm plans to go before inspector

The proposal, for Footbridge Farm, at Tasley, Bridgnorth, was rejected by Shropshire Council's planning committee in November 2021 – despite being recommended for approval by the authority's officers.

Applicant Matthew Bower appealed against the decision and a hearing on the proposal will now take place at Shrewsbury's Shirehall, starting at 10am on Wednesday, January 11.

The proposal is for a 210,000-chicken farm, with four buildings each housing 52,000 birds – a total of more than 1.5 million birds every year.

The committee rejected the plan in 2021 over the potential impact of the smell on nearby housing developments and future developments, as well as the environmental concern about the effect of ammonia from the site on the Site of Special Scientific Interest at Thatchers Wood and Westwood.

Speaking ahead of next week's hearing, George Edwards, a Tasley parish councillor and member of the Tasley Action Group which has been campaigning against the planning application for more than five years, said: “We praise the members of the planning committee who refused to accept the planning officer’s recommendation to approve what members recognised was a fundamentally flawed application.

"We trust the planning inspector will exercise similar procedural fairness and uphold members’ decision to refuse planning permission.”

The plan for the farm was actually approved by the council back in September 2017.

But a legal battle followed with a residents' group securing a judicial review, which it first lost at the High Court in June 2018, before winning at the Court of Appeal in May 2019.

The Shropshire Star has contacted the agent acting for the applicants, who declined to comment ahead of the latest hearing.

The hearing is scheduled to last for one day, following which the planning inspector will consider their judgement, before publishing their findings, which will decide whether the plan is given the go-ahead or not.