Transporting 300,000 birds to £6m chicken farm will pose 'no highways concerns' residents told

Hambleton District Council’s planning officers have recommended Dinsdale Farming’s proposal to launch a large-scale broiler chicken venture on six hectares of open countryside off Hag Lane, Raskelf, south-west of Easingwold, be approved, saying it complies with both local and national policies. Agents for the applicant have stated expanding its operations at its established farm beside the River Tees at Lower Dinsdale, south-east of Darlington, had been discounted, as it “would fail to meet the standards for protection of the amenity of neighbours”.

Papers submitted to the authority state building six 126m-long sheds to house the chickens for about 38 days would create “a modern and efficient, livestock production unit that is designed to fulfill a modern demand for cheap and environmentally efficiently produced food”. The papers state: “It therefore contributes to food production and national food security in a sustainable way.”

Manure from the site would be transported to Thetford Power Station in Norfolk, the largest such facility in Britain running on poultry litter. However, four parish councils and more than 100 residents of Raskelf, Tollerton, Flawith and Tholthorpe, have claimed the development would have a profoundly damaging impact on the environment and villagers’ quality of life.

Objectors have stated while Hambleton’s Local Plan states that the loss of agricultural land graded “best and most versatile” should be avoided wherever possible, the applicant has not even considered other sites for the development. They have underlined while the district already has some 31 major poultry units, it is less than a year since the council declared a climate emergency and should recognise “passing plans for animal farms would seem a contradiction in values”.

Although objectors have also raised the prospect of unpleasant ammonia-type smells emanating from the “factory farm”, the biggest cause of concern appears to relate to HGVs passing through several villages to reach the A19. Tollerton Parish Council said the forecast extra 1,500 lorries passing through the village every year was “not acceptable in a secondary village with unclassified roads”.

Tholthorpe Parish Council said the plan would potentially dangerous increase in heavy goods vehicle movements over a route which has had 95 accidents, three of them fatal, in the last 22 years. Nevertheless, a council officer’s report to the planning committee which will consider the scheme on Thursday, states the HGVs would have to follow a specific route which would be monitored by CCTV at the site entrance.

It adds: “On this basis and subject to a vehicle routing condition the development it is considered the proposal raises no highways concerns. Taking all of the above into account it is considered that the proposed development complies with the relevant Local Plan policies in terms of principle, landscape impact, amenity, biodiversity, highways, drainage, archaeology, air quality, animal health and is otherwise in accordance with local and national policy requirements.”