MANURE from hundreds of thousands of chickens could be spread across farmland around a Worcestershire village and cause a stink, local residents fear.

MP Sir Peter Luff believes ‘an industrial chicken complex in unspoilt countryside’ could get through because of looholes in the planning and environmental system.

He is taking up the case of giant chicken plants planned for Upton Snodsbury following a packed public meeting this week.

Up to four separate chicken units are proposed, each of four sheds and producing hundreds of thousands of chicken a year. Two applications are already being considered by the Environment Agency and Wychavon District Council – who last week voted unanimously to reject the first application.

Local campaigners in the Wychavon Parishes Action Group have highlighted some serious shortcomings in policy and regulations which Sir Peter is now taking to ministers.

In a letter to Liz Truss, Secretary of State for Defra, and to Brandon Lewis, Minister of State for Planning, Sir Peter has set out three particular areas of national government policy that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

The letter states,

  • “First, no other industrial activity, accept possibly intensive pig production, would be allowed on these sites. It is simply wrong to categorise intensive chicken farming as agriculture and to exempt it from the full rigour of the planning system.
  • “Second, a chicken farm requires both planning permission and an environmental permit from the Environment Agency. In Upton Snodsbury it is clear that the various applicants are playing the system, one by applying for planning for the environmental permit and the other by applying for the permit before the permission. "
  • “Third, I am amazed to learn that, although the environmental permit controls odours during the life cycle of the chicken and the cleansing of the chicken houses and although the planning permission can control matters such as lorry movements, there is no control whatsoever over the disposal of the chicken manure generated. My constituents live in fear of the huge quantities of the manure being spread over neighbouring farms with the severest consequences in terms of odour generated.

Sir Peter said: “I hope that the ministers will understand the deep concern of residents in Upton Snodsbury and the surrounding villages. These intensive chicken units should not count as agricultural farming and it is completely wrong that the applicants are allowed the get around the system in the way that they are.

“I will do all I can to protect residents and the environment in Upton Snodsbury and the wider area from these very unwelcome applications.”