Chicken shed plan resubmitted

A Herefordshire farm has put forward a second bid to build four chicken sheds after a previous bid was rejected.

Corbett Farms of Shobdon wants to replace two ageing sheds at its Park Top Farm, Uphampton, with four “state-of-the-art” buildings, and also to replace the poultry manager’s bungalow on the site with a new two-storey house.

The farm’s previous application was refused in March, owing to its potential environmental, landscape and noise impact.

The revised bid seeks to address this with an assurance that reducing the number of birds from 40,000 to 36,000, coupled with the decommissioning of a second life-expired site at nearby Ledicot, would mean no net increase in birds raised in the area, and therefore no increase in environmentally harmful phosphates.

About 400 tonnes of manure produced per cycle “will be taken off-site to be used in the anaerobic digester owned by the applicant at Shobdon Airfield”, the application says, adding that the farm “is investigating phosphate removal technologies which would provide an overall reduction, but this is not yet installed”.

Landscape concerns are addressed with a new plan to plant a row of semi-mature trees between the development and the adjacent road.

“The proposed development will not result in any significant noise nuisance to warrant a refusal on these grounds,” the new application adds.

As with the current 1960s buildings, the new sheds would house hens which would provide eggs for the nearby hatchery next to Shobdon Church, which then supplies all Avara broiler chicken sites in north Herefordshire.

“The output from the hatchery has continually increased in recent years, and if the economy around Avara is to be maintained, there is a need for Corbett Farms to continue/grow their part of the rearing-laying process,” the application says.

Comments on the application, numbered 222642, can be made until September 29.