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Campaigners have launched a legal bid to stop the chicken industry expanding into the River Severn catchment to save it from becoming as polluted as the River Wye.
Read more: I’m Taking The Government To Court Over Farmed Chickens – Here’s Why
Shropshire Council faces a judicial review, backed by campaign group River Action, for its decision to approve a chicken factory farm that will house 230,000 birds in four sheds. The farm site sits within the Severn catchment, risking what River Action’s chairman Charles Watson described as “a re-run of the environmental scandal” that has happened in the River Wye.
The Wye, which runs through Wales and into England, has been choked by manure run off from hundreds of chicken factory farms containing more than 44 million birds in its catchment. Phosphate levels in the river have increased sharply as a result, causing algal blooms and killing off wildlife.
According to the judicial review application, the council failed to take into account the environmental harms of manure and biomass emissions related to the farm. Many chicken factory farms export waste to anaerobic digesters which create gas to use as fuel. But the “digestate” left over is spread on farms as fertilizer, which campaigners say will still be a source of pollution.
Explosion of factory farms
There are already dozens of industrial chicken farms in Shropshire, with many located in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Factory farms in Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Powys in the River Wye catchment have proliferated since 2011.
Councils don’t have to take into account the combined effect of granting planning approval to numerous factory farms. They also won’t refuse such applications on principle, and are instead obliged to ask the applicant how impacts such as odour, noise, and pollution will be reduced to “an unspecified degree.” They only refuse permission if mitigation is impossible.
Several judicial reviews in Shropshire have already been successful in getting planning permission overturned. Though applicants often re-apply with amended applications.
Read more: More Than A Million Chickens Feared Dead After Huge Illinois Barn Fire
