Potential poultry farm site goes under the spotlight

Protestors assembled outside Mendip District Council’s offices last week where a planning inquiry was being held into whether a huge chicken factory should be built in Frome.
The inquiry, which took place on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th August, came at the end of a lengthy planning struggle between the poultry breeder and hundreds of residents who live near to the site at Bunns Lane, on the outskirts of town. The plans detail four poultry houses being erected, each of which would house 56,000 chickens.
The plans were originally submitted in 2004, causing upset amongst local villagers who objected to the planning application and mounted a campaign against the proposal.
Mendip District Council refused the application following concerns over the size of the development and the damage it may cause to the nearby woodland and the aesthetic impact on the landscape.
Following an appeal against the refusal by the applicant, Malcolm Maxwell, the application was refused for a second time. Malcolm Maxwell appealed a second time in 2006, and a public inquiry was filed for the application.
Mendip District Council stated the official grounds for refusing the application the second time round as, “This would foster growth in the need to travel, would result in minimal benefit to the local economy and would harm the environment and the economic benefits are not considered sufficient to outweight the harm which would result.
They also stated, “The proposal involves emissions and deposits which would have a seriously harmful impact on the adjacent county wildlife site and potentially on more distant sites. The proposal would have a harmful impact on wildlife interests.”
Campaigners and local residents are concerned that the poultry farm would create an inescapable smell.
The inquiry was presided over by a planning inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for the Environment. A decision on the application will be finalised over the next six weeks.
MP for Frome David Heath presented a case at the inquiry. He said, “I have been aware of the proposed development since its inception, and although I have been careful to observe the convention that members of Parliament should not intervene directly in local planning decisions, I have sought to ensure that the concerns of local residents were brought to the attention of the local planning authority, in this case Mendip District Council, on previous occasions on which it has been considered.
“Given that, in my view, the case for the appellant in terms of need is now less arguable; there is a real risk of a cumulative effect in the area which is entirely contrary to local and national planning policies, and that there are no significant change in the factors which gave grounds for the previous refusal, I believe that the appeal should be dismissed.”