High Court ruling a turning point in fight against 'harmful spread of factory farms'

Campaigners were concerned about the added risk of pollution from spreading 3,600 tonnes of poultry manure a year on land in the river Severn catchment, on top of large volumes of muck from other large poultry farms nearby.

The case was brought by environmental charity River Action and board member Dr Alison Caffyn.

The counties of Shropshire, Herefordshire and Powys are home to more than 50 million chickens at any one time, and Dr Caffyn argued this was placing huge pressures on the rivers Wye and Severn.

She said phosphorous and nitrogen pollution - the latter in the gas form of ammonia - from the chicken droppings was degrading many protected environmental sites.

Dr Caffyn said: “There are nearly 65 chickens for every person in Shropshire and yet the council still thought we needed more.

"This ruling proves what we’ve said all along: the planning system has been putting our rivers at risk."

Parts of the claimants' case failed, however the Judge found that Shropshire Council acted unlawfully by failing to assess the environmental effects of digestate — an organic by-product of anaerobic digestion used as fertiliser — when granting planning permission for a large poultry farm.

While the council had evaluated the impacts of raw manure spreading, the court held that it had not turned its mind to the potential "indirect effects" of digestate on watercourses, despite its known high levels of nitrates and phosphates.

The judge ruled that such downstream impacts were “likely” and “capable of meaningful assessment,” and should have been included within an environmental impact assessment which accompanied the planning application.

"This ruling is a wake-up call,” said Emma Dearnaley, River Action’s Head of Legal.

“For too long, councils like Shropshire have been rubber-stamping intensive livestock farms without fully considering the damage they do to the surrounding environment.

"There are already far too many chickens in areas like the Severn and our rivers are choking on chicken muck.

"Today, the court drew a line: no more megafarms without looking at the bigger picture."

Shropshire Council was ordered to bear the campaigners' £35,000 legal costs.

The council said: “We acknowledge today’s judgement and will now take some time to study it and consider its implications.”