'Crazy chicken lady' taken to court by her neighbour because her cockerels are waking them up at 4am every morning

Animal-lover Jess Marson, 33, will appear before magistrates on Friday (Mar 11) over claims she failed to reduce disturbances despite being warned by the council to take action.

Jess has two goats, one pig, two geese, 51 chickens nine ducks, two guinea pigs and three cats on a patch of semi-rural land she leases from a dairy farmer.

But a fellow resident who lives in the village of Clayton West, near Huddersfield, has complained to the local council the cockerels waking her up in the early hours.

Jess, a self-confessed 'crazy chicken lady', said she fears the worst if she loses the court battle.

She added: "Obviously, it is not nice when you are being woken up but this is a semi-rural area and I rent the land from a local farmer. They’re like my babies. I don’t have children and I don’t intend to have any.

“I’ve always grown up with animals and as an adult, I can have any animals I want. These are the ones I want. I want to spend time with them they’re like my children, I have put so much time and effort into them.

“The cockerels would have to be rehomed. But if you breed them, you have be of the understanding you can’t rehome all of them. They may have to be euthanised in the worst-case scenario, I wouldn’t be able to keep any cockerels at all.

“It would end my hobby of keeping my favourite breed of chicken."

Jess has leased the land from a dairy farmer for the last three years, but was served a noise abatement order by Kirklees Council after they received complaints.

A witness statement from one resident says: "The noise from the crowing cockerels has affected and continues to affect our daily life. This is not just a single bird crowing occasionally, with multiple birds being kept.

"Typically, once one starts other birds join in with almost continual crowing either simultaneously or consecutively. With such disturbance to our health has been affected as well as disturbing and spoiling any enjoyment we might have in being outside in our garden.

"More so in summer when doors and windows are typically open the noise also infiltrates the house. Over time the number of birds kept has been increased exacerbating the issue. We believe that at least six cockerels have been kept and possibly 10 or more since 2019.

"It is almost three years since the problem started and our first complaint was made to Kirklees Council in 2019."

But Jess believes her cockerels are not responsible for the noise and has support from other neighbours who live nearby.

Jess has raised almost £500 to cover her legal fees to fight the court case which could see her having to give up her animals if she loses.

In one statement she hopes to submit to the court, a neighbour who lives around 100 metres from the small holding, says: "I wish to make it clear that my family and I have never noticed any excessive noise from the area and can only hear the animals occasionally when we open our doors in the morning.

"I find the complaints about the cockerels to quite ridiculous."

Jess added: “The person who complained lives around 120m from the land. There are people that live closer than the person who has complained that don’t have a problem with the chickens.

“The neighbours that live closer have never complained about the noise. I feel this person is just out to cause trouble. I’ve had this bit of land for about three years and the numbers of cockerels have increased since then.

“But they’ve reported that we have 10 plus cockerels, but that’s just not true. I have six at the moment. I’ve been up here at 4am before work and have heard one cockerel crow. I don’t think they are waking them up.

“I’m up there every day and some days in the summer I’m there for like six hours. They’ve had plenty of opportunities to come and see me and tell me if they have a problem."

Jess, who lives near the land she keeps her animals on, said she visits the plot every day.

Councillor Will Simpson, of Kirkless Council, said: “Kirklees Council’s Environmental Health Team will be attending Magistrates Court in March with regards to breaches of a Noise Abatement Notice relating to Cockerels.

“It is fairly rare for Environmental Health to prosecute for noise from Cockerels with prosecution always seen as the last course of action where informal measures and negotiations have failed.”