Contamination concerns about welfare processing facility plans

A livestock processing facility won’t be built near Shebbear because of concerns about neighbouring land being contaminated.

Torridge District Council’s plans committee said there was a lack of information on how foul water would be stored and how surrounding farmland and property would be protected.

The applicant, a Mr Haste, wanted to convert an agricultural building at his Stoneleigh Farm, half a mile from the village, into a ‘welfare processing facility’ for emergency livestock casualties.

The animals would arrive whole, having been slaughtered on their farms, and would be processed before being delivered to butchers.

Meat from these animals is currently being wasted as there is no local facility to deal with it.

The rules are that animals have to be transported to a processing site within two hours of being slaughtered, and the nearest location is in Taunton.

This was not a plan for an abattoir, committee members were told.

Up to 20 animals a day would be transported to the farm within a two-hour drive.

But neighbouring dairy farmer Julia Bridgeman told the committee that a proposed boundary fence was not adequate to protect her farm or livestock from contamination.

She said there are risks to human and animal health from by-products of animals brought in, and claimed noise and odour could impact her and her husband as they work outside most of the time.

The committee heard that the business would need a permit, which would be reviewed regularly by the Environment Agency.

Cllr Rosemary Lock (Con, Two Rivers and Three Moors) said a condition could be added that a two-metre high wall be built between the operation and the Bridgemans’ farm.

But Cllr Chris Leather (Ind, Northam) questioned where thousands of litres of foul water used for washing down would be stored, a concern shared by Shebbear Parish Council.

“I am not happy about the foul and contaminated water that would be produced, as we have no information about where it will go. We are talking up to 140 animals a week, as it could be a seven-day operation – that is huge amounts of water.”

Cllr Doug Bushby (Ind, Bideford North) said the farm already had a haulage business and was the ideal place for the proposal, rather than an industrial estate or on the edge of a village.

County highways officers had no objections, despite concerns in six letters against the plans about the poor state of the roads and increase in traffic. Officers considered trips to and from the site to be small and said there was plenty of parking.

Agent for the applicant, Andrew Heywood, said he understood the concerns but there would be “minimal” issues, as the work would take place inside – including transferring carcasses to vehicles the size of supermarket vans, not articulated lorries.

Councillors turned down the plan.