Fresh application made to double size of chicken farm

Fresh plans to double the size of a chicken farm near Newtown have been revealed, six months after a previous application was refused.

The application by Tom Hamer and Irene Lloyd of the WL Hamer farming partnership was lodged with Powys County Council in May and was validated and went live on Tuesday, July 22.

The proposal is for a free-range poultry unit to house 32,000 egg laying birds at Upper Bryn Farm which is to the southeast of Abermule.

The plans include the installation of feed bins, formation of vehicular access together with all other associated works.

The farm already has a 32,000-bird poultry unit which also includes a herd of cows and a flock of sheep.

The previous application which had been lodged with the council in 2019.

It was refused by county planners in January on the grounds that it failed to “demonstrate that there would not be an unacceptable impact on highway safety, and that it would cause the deterioration of protected sites in terms of aerial emissions.”

This application was one of a dozen planning applications that have been in limbo for over two years waiting for a decision for Welsh Government planning inspectors to take over the process or not.

Documents lodged with the new application explain changes they have made to the new proposal in a bid to overcome the previous issues.

Gwyn Humphreys of Roger Parry & Partners LLP said: “In response to reason for refusal one, an updated aerial emissions modelling report  has been commissioned and accompanies the planning application.

“It is considered the issues and concerns identified by NRW (Welsh Government environment body Natural Resources Wales) and the authority’s ecologist have been overcome.”

On the highway safety issues, Mr Humphreys said: “The applicant is now happy to enter into a planning obligation to require the existing and proposed poultry units at Upper Bryn to be tied, to ensure that both units run on the same cycle; thus, reducing vehicle movements along the C2052 public highway.”

Mr Humphreys believes that these changes “satisfactorily overcome” county planners previous reasons to refuse the first application and will have “no reason” to refuse this one.

A decision on the application is expected by September 16.

It emerged that between January and May 2023 all planning proposals for chicken farms in the county were issued with “holding directions” from the Welsh Government.

The first Upper Bryn Farm application was put on hold in March 2023.

This is so that a Welsh Government minister can consider taking charge of the decision-making process after being asked to “call in” the applications.

However, Powys planners were told that they could continue to process the application as normal, and the holding direction did not “prevent” applications being refused.

Local Democracy Reporting Service