Petition To Welsh Assembly For Better Regulation Of The Intensive Poultry Farming Industry In Wales

Petition To Welsh Assembly For Better Regulation Of The Intensive Poultry Farming Industry In Wales

CPRW Brecon & Radnor branch has made a petition to the Welsh Assembly Petitions Committee about better regulation of the Intensive Poultry Farming Industry in Wales to protect the environment for future generations. Please follow this link to see and SIGN THE PETITION.

Petitioning the Assembly is one of the most direct ways in which members of the public can raise matters of concern or suggest new policies and different ways of doing things. If we can collect 5,000 signatures or more, the Petitions Committee will automatically consider requesting a plenary debate – where all 60 Assembly Members will be able to discuss the issue.

We have tried to discuss the risks with Powys Planning Authority and done our best to achieve better regulation via the emerging Powys LDP but, so far, the rate of approval has not changed and the Council have rejected the idea of a proper policy to provide environmental protection and clarity for all parties.

Our data about applications to Powys Planning Department for Intensive Poultry Units shows that there have been 99 APPLICATIONS in the last 30 months with ONLY ONE refused. We produced an interactive map of all Powys applications known to us which can be freely accessed with a lot more information on our website. There are now (including units in planning) 7 million chickens in Powys at any one time.

Free-range egg developments, which make up 72 of the 99 applications, are usually too small to require an NRW permit (threshold 40,000 birds) and yet, according to research by NRW to be published very soon, they are even more environmentally damaging than the larger broiler units.

Ammonia concentrations and nitrogen deposition in much of the Powys countryside are now surpassing the critical levels for some rare lower plant species to survive but yet more intensive farms are being crammed into saturated areas. Our steep valleys and high rainfall mean that effluents and manure are running off into the rivers. Chicken farms are being approved regardless of inappropriate sites near sensitive rivers and ancient woodlands, inadequate range-sizes, proximity to neighbours and the cumulative impacts they will have with all the nearby chicken sheds.

The Brecon & Radnor Branch joins with the Montgomery Branch to ask you to PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION and publicize it as widely as you can in your own area to help make this industry safer and more sustainable for all of our Welsh countryside.

Thank you.

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