Berkshire pig farm expansion attracts complaints
Concerns raised over noise, smell, pollution and animal wlfare
Plans for a huge pig ‘factory’ farm in Inkpen have prompted dozens of objections – because of the smell and noise caused by over a thousand pigs.
Residents are also claiming that pig manure waste is already leaking into the local water course.
The Berkshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has written to West Berkshire Council to object to plans for ‘factory farming’ of pigs at Foxglove Farm, Great Common, Inkpen.
CPRE Berkshire reiterates its support for the farming community in West Berkshire but in its letter to the council the charity’s trustees raise “significant concerns” about this application on grounds of scale, intensity and environmental impact.
They say the proposed new development poses major pollution risks to soil and water quality in this environmentally sensitive location.
“Intensive indoor pig farming – ‘factory farming’ – is a serious animal welfare issue, both locally and nationally, and the welfare of farm animals in West Berkshire should be a much higher priority for the council, both for the sake of the animals themselves and for the quality of meat produced.”
CPRE is calling for “comprehensive environmental and animal welfare assessments” at the farm. Trustees of the charity say that the Environment Agency must address the effect of so many animals being in confined conditions, arguing that “this application cannot be assessed in isolation, without taking into account the cumulative effect of this process”.
“Intensive pig farming invariably produces ammonia and nitrates which are then deposited on the land,” said the charity. “These do not just reduce soil quality but also have a harmful effect on wildlife habitats, and in this case would create significant issues for the North Wessex Downs AONB, a protected landscape, and for local flora and fauna in the vicinity of the farm.
Environmental health officers at the council recommend that experts from the Environment Agency are consulted.
Roger Titford, one of the more than 20 objectors, said:
“The vile smell that occasionally emanates from the premises and renders our outdoors environment uninhabitable.
“It can last the whole day, as on Friday 8 September recently. Enlarging the farm will inevitably make this worse.
“The animal noise coming from the farm is disturbing. Doubling the number of pigs present will only make this worse.”
Resident Julia Hopps said:
“I object to the use of this barn for livestock/pigs because of the additional noise of screaming pigs and nauseating stink it will bring as well as the unwelcome additional heavy traffic on our narrow country lanes and the run off pollution that will come from spreading the proposed amount of pig faeces onto the fields in and around our village."
Lianne Sand wrote:
“My understanding is that the application is to allow the transfer of livestock waste from the second barn on the premises – there are currently three barns, one already houses approximately 900 pigs and it seems that the second barn is being earmarked for a similar purpose.
“We live within a few hundred metres of Foxglove Farm and since we arrived a few years ago we have had to put up with regular occurrences of the most dreadful smell coming from the farm.
“On some days the smell is so bad that windows cannot be opened and sitting in the garden is not a possibility.
“When you walk past the farm on the public footpath to the side of the farm and along Great Common Road you can regularly see what looks like waste leaking into the waterways, ditches and adjoining land and this is in an area of outstanding natural beauty – some of which is designated SSSI.”
The matter is now before planners in West Berkshire Council to decide.