Chicken sheds approved despite environmental concerns

RH-J (Farms) Ltd applied to East Lindsey District Council for permission to build four poultry units, with associated control rooms, feed bins, gate house, plant room, substation and dead bird shed on land north east of Grange Farm Yard, Fenside Road, in Toynton St Peter, near Spilsby.

But campaigners were critical of the plans, with Communities Against Factory Farming (CAFF) submitting a formal objection to the proposal amid concerns about the negative impact to the environment and the welfare of the chickens.

CAFF said many residents have approached the organisation with worries over the potential noise, odour and potentially negative impact to the environment.

The organisation also had concerns about the conditions the chickens would be housed in.

At a planning committee meeting on Wednesday, September 2, Coun Neil Jones (Conservative – Sibsey and Stickney) said he was satisfied that the concerns raised would be mitigated.

He added: “We’ve got all these statutory organisations and consultees that have done an awful lot of work on this and it passed all the criteria.

“We have to do this on planning considerations, not on moral considerations or on political considerations, or whether this is right or wrong.”

But Coun Robert Watson (Green – Sutton on Sea) was concerned about the possible impact on the environment.

He said: “We should all be thinking of moving to a diet that is richer in plants than animals.

“That’s the key thing to me and I think at some point we have to start making a stand against this.”

Councillors were also told that Toynton St Peter Parish Council had formally objected to the application because of concerns about the lack of drainage, the potential noise and odour and road safety. The site is accessed by a narrow deteriorating single track road with a blind bend access point – which it said made it unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) to access the site.

But the applicant Alistair Hall-Jones said it had been carefully planned to overcome many of the concerns raised.

He said: “A priority for us has always been to limit and to mitigate the impact on the local community and the environment.

“This is why we have planned for all transport to come directly from the A16 main road and not through Toynton village.

“The risk of pollution to water courses or odour from the chicken manure will be limited because it will go in covered lorries to a power station to generate renewable electricity.

“It will not be stored on site or spread on the land.”

Mr Hall-Jones went on to say that the chicken sheds were vital for food security.

He added: “As a food production industry, we need to invest in modern, efficient units such as this to be able to feed our growing population without reliance on foreign produce.”

The application was approved subject to conditions.