Chicken firm to demolish and rebuild sheds

Sheds housing nearly 200,000 broiler chickens at a Herefordshire farm are to be demolished and rebuilt to a higher standard.

A planning application by Avara Foods, stated that the replacement sheds at Parkway Farm, in Madley, west of Hereford, would have the same footprint as the current eight within the two-hectare site, and would "not result in any increase in floor area, bird numbers, or operational intensity".

The site is operated for Avara by Freemans of Newent, which holds an permit allowing the rearing of up to 249,500 broiler chickens on the site.

The application added that poultry manure would be removed from the site for disposal, "in accordance with the Avara River Wye protocol".

Poultry manure being washed off fields has been linked to declining water quality in the river Wye and its tributaries.

Since January 2024, manure from its farms has not been made available as fertiliser within the Wye catchment and was instead being exported elsewhere, Avara has said.

Law firm Leigh Day is pursuing a legal claim on behalf of some 4,500 claimants in the High Court against Avara, Freemans and also Welsh Water, which they claim have contributed to pollution in the Wye, Lugg and Usk rivers - claims all three deny.

Avara, one of the county's largest employers, said in the application that it "now operates at a reduced stocking level of 192,000 birds, reflecting a transition to a higher welfare and lower stocking density regime".

But it said the existing buildings were "dated and require significant upgrading to meet modern standards of animal welfare and environmental management".

Avara said in April its suppliers were adopting a new stocking density of 30kg of poultry weight per square metre, having previously followed the Red Tractor industry standard of 38kg/sq m.

Four of the new sheds would measure 55m by 25m (180ft by 82ft), with a height of 6.5m (21ft) to the roof ridge, while the other four would each be 73m by 18m (239ft by 59ft) and 6m (19ft) tall.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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