Chicken farm moratorium call rejected by Powys council

Campaigners claim Powys is seen as the "poultry capital" of Wales

A call to pause approval of chicken farm plans in Powys has been rejected.

Campaigners from 10 groups had asked for a moratorium, claiming council officers were "rubber-stamping" bids without considering local views.

They voiced concern that Powys was increasingly seen as the "poultry capital" of Wales, with more than 130 applications made in five years.

In reply, the council said it had a statutory duty to rule on plans while taking account of their overall impact.

In January, Powys county councillors voted to delegate decision-making powers on planning applications to council officers.

In April, these powers were used by officers to approve a 200,000-bird chicken farm near Newtown to replace a free-range egg-laying business.

Ten organisations, including the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, wrote an open letter to council bosses in May claiming the authority was "effectively rubber-stamping approval of a flood of these applications without apparent consideration of the overall impact on the county".

Peter Morris, lead officer for planning, has now replied for the council, saying: "As a local planning authority, the council has a statutory duty, as set out in legislation, to determine planning applications we receive from customers.

"The authority is therefore unable to impose a moratorium on any type of planning application because to do so would conflict with this statutory duty."

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Mr Morris said the cumulative impact of intensive poultry units "are material planning considerations which are taken into account and considered in the planning application decision making process".

"Human health considerations" such as impacts arising from odour, dust, noise and other emissions were also taken into account, he added.

Speaking for the campaign groups, Darrell Shephard told the Local Democracy Reporting Service they found the reply to be "wholly unsatisfactory" and claimed it failed to answer many of their main concerns.