A planning application by Avara Foods, one of the county’s largest employers, says the replacement sheds at Parkway Farm, Madley west of Hereford would have the same footprint as the current eight within the two-hectare site, and “will not result in any increase in floor area, bird numbers, or operational intensity”.
The site is operated for Avara by Freemans of Newent, which holds an environmental permit allowing the rearing of up to 249,500 broiler chickens on the site. It “now operates at a reduced stocking level of 192,000 birds, reflecting a transition to a higher welfare and lower stocking density regime”, the application explains. But the existing buildings “are dated and require significant upgrading to meet modern standards of animal welfare and environmental management”.
Avara said in April its suppliers were adopting a new stocking density of 30kg of poultry weight per square metre, having previously followed the Red Tractor industry standard of 38kg/sq m. Four of the new sheds would measure 55 by 25 metres, with a height of 6.5m to the roof ridge, while the other four would each be 73 by 18 metres, and 6m tall. Sides and roofs would be clad in slate blue/grey profile sheeting.
The application adds that poultry manure would be removed from the site for disposal, “in accordance with the Avara River Wye protocol”. Avara has said that since January 2024, manure from its farms is not made available as fertiliser within the Wye catchment and is instead being exported elsewhere. Poultry manure being washed off fields has been linked to declining water quality in the river Wye and its tributaries.
Currently law firm Leigh Day is pursuing a legal claim on behalf of some 4,500 claimants in the High Court against Avara, Freemans and also Welsh Water, which they claim have contributed to pollution in the Wye, Lugg and Usk rivers – claims all three deny.
Written by Gavin McEwan - Local Democracy Reporter
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