Legal challenge to the approval of a chicken farm

A lawsuit is filed against the permit for the construction of a large poultry house.

In May, Shropshire Council approved an application by LJ Cooke & Son for a poultry production unit at Felton Butler, north-west of Shrewsbury.

The facility will house 230,000 birds and campaign group River Action said it was funding the scheme to prevent “pollution from intensive farming practices” in the catchment area.

Andrew Cooke, owner of LJ Cooke & Son, said he had no comment “as it is a matter between Shropshire Council and River Action”.

Shropshire Council said it was still considering its position.

Law firm Leigh Day has filed an application for a judicial review of the council’s decision.

The application argued that the Council had failed to take into account a number of aspects, including the impacts of slurry spreading and emissions from biomass combustion.

It also said the council had failed to enforce a planning condition for slurry processing, failed to carry out a proper assessment of the impacts on a designated protected site and used outdated data on ammonia baseline levels.

Charles Watson, chairman of River Action, said: “One of the main causes of the severe pollution of the River Wye has been the granting of planning permission for the recent unprecedented expansion of intensive factory farming.”

He said local authorities along the river route had not adequately considered the cumulative impact of chicken farms on the river.

A Shropshire Council spokesman said: “The decision to grant planning permission for four poultry houses at North Farm was taken after fully considering the likely impacts of the proposal on the environment, including water resources.”

It also stated that the law contained a number of requirements to regulate the operations on the farm.