Intensive Poultry Units
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We have included some useful resources below in the meantime.
Did you know that, according to our calculations, as at July 2019, in the counties of Shropshire, Herefordshhire and Powys there were 500 farms with a total of 1,420 intensive poultry units/sheds, containing over 44 million birds?
A major threat to Shropshire’s countryside (and that of our neighbouring counties of Herefordshire and Radnorshire) today is the rapid growth in the intensive livestock industry, which is generating a wave of industrial complexes across the rural landscape.
Their visual impact is not the only concern: like many other industrial operations, intensive livestock units produce many undesirable impacts, which in any other industry would be confined to a brownfield site.
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In Shropshire there have been a few successful Judicial Reviews which have resulted in the quashing of planning permission for some IPUs. The applications sometimes then get re-determined. The longest running of these cases is the Footbridge Farm, Tasley, Bridgnorth IPU, An appeal against refusal was heard on 11 January 2023 and the result is still awaited.
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Pollution of rivers, particularly of the River Wye, has attracted wide-spread publicity in early 2023 and a civil claim against poultry farmers is now being considered.
What are CPRE's concerns around IPUs?
Background Environmental organisations are concerned by the growth and proliferation of Intensive Livestock Units (ILUs) within the UK, particularly the impacts of ammonia, nitrogen deposition and phosphates on biodiversity and human health, and the consequent deterioration of rural living conditions and our treasured rural landscapes.
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Their concerns include, but are not limited to:
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• Pollution of water such as streams, rivers and ponds, affecting freshwater ecosystems
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• Impacts of ammonia emissions on lower plants and plant diversity, and the resulting damage to ecosystems including those within Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Ancient Woodland and other designated nature sites
• Air pollution affecting our own health
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• Foul odours and heavy traffic on narrow rural lanes
• The impacts of industrial-scale development on rural landscapes, including those designated as AONBS (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) and National Parks
This is a problem which knows no borders, and especially as the headwaters of some of Britain’s iconic rivers – the Wye and the Severn – lie in Powys, then both rivers run through Herefordshire and Shropshire with tributaries in Shropshire from the Clun, Onny, and Teme in the south.
Shropshire IPU Case Study
Tasley Chicken Farm
A local action group, Tasley Chicken Factory Farm Action Group, was involved in a fight against a planning application to build four large commercial broiler poultry sheds (300 feet long x 80 feet wide), processing 1.5 million chickens a year close to the town of Bridgnorth.
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Following a successful legal challenge in the Court of Appeal, Shropshire Council’s original decision to approve the intensive chicken farm at Tasley was quashed in early summer 2019.
However, a revised planning application has been submitted and Shropshire Council had to decide on the planning application again.
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For the significance of the Tasley Court of Appeal (2019) decision, please see here.
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Find the Tasley action group on Facebook at https://m.facebook.com/tasleychickenfarmactiongroup/