Back in July 2015, BRECON AND RADNOR CPRW started cataloguing all the applications for intensive poultry farms in Powys to show the public just how many there were and how fast the numbers of applications and approvals were increasing every single month.

We knew the chicken manure and ammonia emissions were polluting our rivers and reducing plant biodiversity. But this did not stop Powys Planning, advised by Natural Resources Wales, allowing more and more.

You can see our much-consulted Powys Chicken Map  here.

Later, we joined with our English colleague, Dr Alison Caffyn, to show that the “chicken capital of Europe” spreads over Powys, Herefordshire and Shropshire. There are over 10 million chickens in Powys alone and 20 million in the cross-border catchment of the iconic river Wye.

Powys will not listen and so CPRW has kept on asking the Welsh Government to STOP approval of more intensive chicken farms.

There are still twelve more Powys poultry planning applications waiting for decision by Powys County Council. Since Spring 2023, these have been put under “Holding Directions” by the Welsh Government. This means Powys could not approve yet more intensive chicken farms for the past year but we still do not know whether the Welsh Government will let them go ahead.

Now there are lots of UK organisations joining in and asking for Government action in both England and Wales. The latest petition from the Soil Association asks …….

“UK Governments to implement a ban on new intensive poultry units, support farmers to exit this damaging industry, and take action to reduce chicken consumption to more sustainable levels”

Please watch the film and sign this PETITION to Stop Killing our Rivers – and forward to others who would support this cause.

There have been interesting developments with no new applications in 2023 – and no approvals either – and there have been very welcome changes in NRW scrutiny of applications.

However, it remains to be seen how much control there will be over the negative impacts of all the existing units:

• ammonia emissions impacting on plant biodiversity and human health;

• nutrient excesses impacting soils and rivers.

After considerable public pressure, the Avara Foods Sustainable Poultry road map undertakes to export excess manure out of the River Wye catchment but we do not know exactly which or how many Wye catchment broiler IPUs operate under Avara contracts in Powys. There are a lot of free range egg units in Powys and half the county is in the River Severn catchment.

Meanwhile the Welsh Government has the 12 undecided poultry unit applications on its list of Planning Decisions Before the Welsh Ministers.

For a more detailed update see the Powys Intensive Poultry Units January 2024 page.

Are you fed up with litter around our beautiful county? Do you want to help in the final push to get Presteigne’s newest nature reserve planted? CPRW Brecon & Radnor are joining with Coed Llanandras, Presteigne’s new area for nature recovery, to organise a litter-pick and tree-planting morning on Monday May 8th at 10.30am (till about 1pm). If you would like to take part (and do one or the other, or both) then come to our meeting point, the entrance to Coed Llanandras, opposite The Warden (Warden Road, Presteigne LD8 2NL). Wear stout shoes and bring water/flask of coffee. Cake will be provided. It would help us plan if you can let us know you are coming (but it’s not essential): email emma.lilley@btinternet.com. We look forward to seeing you!

NFU Cymru Brecon & Radnor County Chair, Sharon Hammond, interviewed by Paul Whitehouse in Our Troubled Rivers: Series 1 Episode 2. BBC 5th March 2023 “Anything we apply to the ground is not allowed to be less than three metres from the river…”

Sharon Hammond runs a 120,000 intensive broiler-chicken raising enterprise contracted with AVARA (merged Cargill and Faccenda UK poultry enterprise) at Upper Dollwynhir on the River Ithon in the catchment of the highly protected, but dying, RIVER WYE.

CPRW interactive Powys intensive poultry planning map shows this is one of many:

Sharon shows Paul a faint manure-spreading line in the grass very close to the river:

Sharon says: “anything we apply to the ground is not allowed to be less than three metres from the river…”

Paul says: “you see, that seems quite close to me, Sharon, now who decides that?”

Sharon says: “that is a Welsh Government Directive…”

Paul says: ‘to me the river looks dead…”

The Welsh Regulations say: