Victory for campaigners as chicken farm plans are shelved

A six year fight to stop an intensive chicken farm being built on the outskirts of Bridgnorth has ended in victory after the applicants confirmed they were dropping the plans.

The proposals would have seen four poultry units housing a total of 210,000 birds constructed at Footbridge Farm in Tasley, on land which is now likely to be used for housing as part of the planned ‘garden village’.

Campaigners have welcomed the move and are now calling on Shropshire Council to act on concerns about the environmental impact of factory farming by preventing any new units being built.

The Footbridge Farm scheme was rejected by the council in 2021 and the decision was backed by a planning inspector last month, after an appeal by landowner Matthew Bower.

Following the judgement, Mr Bower’s planning agents Ian Pick Associates said their client was “taking legal advice” on whether there was a way forward.

However they have now confirmed that Mr Bower has decided not fight the ruling in the courts.

Mr Pick said: “The applicant at Footbridge Farm is not pursuing a judicial review of the Planning Inspectorate’s decision.

“The site at Footbridge Farm is now very likely to be zoned for housing development as part of the Tasley Garden Village in the local plan review, so the poultry unit is no longer being pursued at all in favour of the housing scheme.”

Tasley Action Group (TAG), which was formed in 2017 after the plans were lodged, said it was the right decision as the application was “fundamentally flawed”.

TAG spokesman and Tasley parish councillor George Edwards said: “It’s been six very long, hard-fought  years and we are absolutely delighted that this Footbridge Farm industrial poultry scheme has finally been laid to rest once and for all.

“Shropshire Council’s planning officers should have binned this application right from the start – it was too close to housing, both existing and planned.”

Mr Edwards said it was concerning that the council had accepted the applicant’s odour assessment, but the Planning Inspectorate who heard the appeal later ruled it “could not be relied upon”.

This issue was put to the council’s cabinet at a meeting last week in a public question by Dr Alison Caffyn, who researches the impacts of intensive poultry units in Herefordshire and Shropshire.

She asked how the council would respond to the inspector’s concerns over the odour assessment – which was produced by the same company used by applicants behind plans for other intensive poultry units across Shropshire.

However the council said its own environmental protection team and consultancy firm – who were “experts” in the field – had judged that the modelling was fit for purpose.

Mr Edwards said this response showed council officers were “still unable to accept they got it wrong”.

He said it was now time for the council to take stock of the number of intensive farming units it has permitted across the county – and say enough is enough.

Mr Edwards said: “For well over a decade, planning officers have been recommending applications for similar industrial livestock units and Shropshire now has more of them than any other county in England, all of which cumulatively pollute the environment with a progressive detrimental effect on people’s health.

“Yet there has never been any statement from Shropshire Council spelling out precisely what the actual benefits are to Shropshire and its inhabitants from these clearly harmful developments imposed upon communities.

“The national press tells us that the true cost of industrial livestock farming is paid for by the environment, and that the whole model is not, nor has never been, sustainable.

“Whilst we firmly support British farmers and farming, this cannot be done at the expense of the very environment on which we all rely.

“Herefordshire has called for a moratorium on industrial livestock farming developments for these very reasons, and it is suggested Shropshire Council follow suit, particularly in the light of it having declared a climate emergency.

“Instead of supporting and approving yet more types of these developments, which threaten the environment and health and wellbeing of communities across the county, Shropshire Council’s decision-makers should be supporting the transition of agriculture away from industrial livestock factory farming towards more diverse, sustainable and profitable farming methods.”

Councillor Richard Marshall, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for highways and regulatory services, confirmed the Tasley site would now be brought into the garden village but said the council would not introduce a ban on new intensive farming units.

He said: “We can confirm the local plan allocation at Tasley Garden Village does include part of the site for the poultry unit, with some of the site going into land identified as potential future development.

“The appeal decision will continue to be a relevant consideration when dealing with future applications for poultry and similar development.

“There are currently no plans to impose a moratorium, and the environmental impacts of poultry farming are carefully assessed as part of the planning process.”

Shropshire Council initially granted permission for the Footbridge Farm scheme but a legal battle ensued after TAG secured a judicial review.

The High Court upheld the council’s decision in June 2018, but the group took its fight to the Court of Appeal which ruled in May 2019 that the planning permission should be quashed – meaning the application went back to the council to be decided again.

When the scheme went before the southern planning committee in December 2021, members voted to refuse permission – going against the advice of planning officers.