Reprieve for Piddle Brook - Planning Committee Voted 14 Nil to Reject Application

The Chicken Broiler Farm Application by Edward Davies was unanimously Rejected by the Wychavon Planning Committee 14 votes to 0.  The excellent news was greeted by cheers and clapping from a packed chamber.

Mr Pick of Ian Pick Associates and Mr Davies left by the fire exit as soon as the result was announced. One could describe it as a chicken run....!

However, Mr Pick made it quite clear that they would be lodging an appeal and that is what they did as soon as the refusal notice was issued. The full Refusal notice can be read here.  

It will be a Written Representation. This is interesting as this is supposed to be where the case is not contentious. Most of those involved would say this case was.

Here are some of the comments from local newspapers.

The Daily Telegraph also featured an article this week on Planning Applications and Chicken Farms. Presumably the Poultry Council's PR department has been on the case since this was rejected. If only they could distinguish between a Planning Application which was in a reasonable in an appropriate location and this one which wasn't.

Prior to the Meeting - Worcester News - http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/archive/2013/10/11/10729439.Protesters_mass_to_fight____terrible____chicken_farm/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/10375738/Britain-is-running-out-of-space-to-farm-chickens-warns-poultry-industry.html

This was our response to the Editor:

"Sir,

‘Britain is running out of space to farm chickens, warns poultry industry’- The Telegraph, Monday 14 October.

We have recently helped represent our local community in successfully persuading the local planning authority to reject a proposal for a new 80,000 meat-chicken unit in open countryside in rural Worcestershire.

Farmers currently enjoy a more favourable planning environment than any other business sector, so if they fail to achieve success in planning applications it could be that an inappropriate location has been chosen and that there are good planning reasons for rejection.

We accept there is a debate to be had about the location of industrial scale poultry units, but if sites are proposed that are contrary to local policies on landscape impact, risk of pollution to sensitive watercourses and risk to the livelihoods of existing tourism businesses nearby, then it is only right that they fail. In our case, not a single local farmer was in favour of the proposal and the Planning Committee, which also includes a number of active farmers, rejected the application unanimously.

It is not a question of needing to speed up the planning process, or that we do not have enough suitable locations. The challenge for the poultry industry is to find those suitable sites, rather than selecting ones that are inherently unsuitable and then be disappointed that planning permission is not granted."


Finally, here are some photos taken from Seaford Lane looking towards Throckmorton where the feed storage units for the chicken broiler units stand out quite significantly against the landscape. We seriously hope that this is not the view in the opposite view toward Upton Snodsbury in a few years time if this appeal is won by the applicant.