Plans for cattle shed as big as a supermarket

A farmer who wants to build a large cattle shed has said in a planning application the alternative would be to build a solar farm on the land.

The plans for the shed are in Potterne parish, Wiltshire, which recently lost a fight against plans for a 200-acre solar farm.

This application for Whyr Farm off Worton Road is for a beef plant, with one shed 9m (30ft) tall - the size of a supermarket at almost 2,100m2 of floor space and big enough to be classed as a major application by Wiltshire Council.

There would be two sheds and a temporary mobile home, where an agricultural worker could stay to take care of the hundreds of cattle.

"Beef production is a profitable enterprise. The alternative to beef production on the site would be to build a solar farm on the land," Bodman Livestock Ltd said in the application.

An agricultural assessment said the land was not suitable for arable farming and last year's corn crop failed, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reports.

Wiltshire planners have been told the mobile home would be vital to the operation of the beef enterprise as "the cattle due to calve and all youngstock require close supervision at all times".

The planning consultant said the design would minimise the impact on the surroundings being "governed by the need for efficient modern farming practices".

"It includes a need for a 9m (30ft) eaves height to allow access by modern farm machinery. The roof pitch has been kept purposely low to minimise the overall height of the building."

An odour assessment said there was "a risk that odour emissions from the livestock building will impact on the amenity of odour-sensitive" residents.

But it said "given the prevalence of farms in the area, local residents are likely to be accustomed to some odour from agricultural activity and will have moved into their homes fully aware that odour is a risk in a rural area close to working farms".

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