INTENSIVE POULTRY DEVELOPMENTS

INTENSIVE POULTRY DEVELOPMENTS

Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire, and Herefordshire and Shropshire on the other side of the border, have for some years been experiencing a surge in applications for intensive poultry units (IPUs). The density of these developments has reached a level unmatched in Europe. [See animation and graphs below.] CPRW Brecon and Radnor Branch have concerns that these developments are given planning permission without adequate assessment of the impacts, individually and cumulatively, on our environment, landscape and residential amenity.

We fully understand the importance of diversification projects to our farmers, but it is not acceptable for our regulators and decision makers to allow development which will lead to serious and lasting environmental damage. We are discussing these issues with other Welsh NGOs, Natural Resources Wales, the Office of the Well-Being Commissioner for Wales, Powys County Council and the Committee for Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs. See our 2018 petition for responses to our concerns from the Environment Minister, Lesley Griffiths.

Local Development Plan: During the Local Development Plan (LDP) Inquiry process our branch of CPRW presented evidence to support the case for the inclusion of a specific policy to ensure impacts of IPUs are consistently recognised in the planning process. At the Inspector’s request (and with the help of our planning barrister) we submitted a draft policy. Powys County Council planning team strongly resisted inclusion of an IPU policy and the Welsh Government representative at the Inquiry did not support our arguments. The opportunity has been missed and there is no IPU policy in the new Powys LDP. In June 2018, Welsh Government have issued guidance to Local Authorities recommending the inclusion of IPU policies in LDPs.

2016 Seminar: Download a brief summary of our Ponds, Rivers and Poultry seminar (held at Llanigon Village Hall on 29th October 2016) here.

On the following web pages you will find:

  1. Summary of environmental issues and the planning balance
  2. CPRW Brecon & Radnor Press release 2/7/2020: summary of 5 years campaigning
  3. Welsh Assembly Petition: In May 2018 we submitted a petition to the Welsh Assembly calling for Government to ensure that the poultry industry in Wales is environmentally sustainable, in line with the Government’s own recent legislation. For two years we were in correspondence with the Petitions Committee and submitted further evidence in response to the Environment Minister’s submissions to the Committee. Sadly, the Minister has not addressed our concerns.
  4.  Powys Poultry Map: We have prepared a cumulative map showing poultry developments in Powys outside the National Park. This map shows the locations of Chicken Sheds in Powys where either Consent has been given or the application is In Planning and is based on information publicly available on the Powys planning portal.
  5. 3 Counties Poultry Map: In collaboration with CPREs Herefordshire and Shropshire and Shropshire Wildlife Trust, in July 2019 we produced a map of intensive poultry units in the three counties.

Powys Chicken Shed Applications by Year – Animation
Map Copyright
© Brecon & Radnor Branch of Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales 2020.
Base map © OpenStreetMap contributors (https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright).
Contains Natural Resources Wales information © Natural Resources Wales and Database Right. All rights Reserved.
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2020.
Chicken Shed data prepared by B&R CPRW from publicly available Planning Applications via Powys County Council Planning Portal.

[Revised December 2020]