Cranswick stated it was contemplating its choices after King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council Planning Committee unanimously rejected its software for a big pig and poultry unit in Norfolk.
After a three-year course of that encountered varied delay and generated enormous opposition, Cranswick had been in search of permission to develop an present website to accommodate 14,000 pigs and 714,000 chickens close to the villages of Methwold and Feltwell.
Following the three-hour listening to, a Cranswick spokesperson stated: “We’re extremely disenchanted by as we speak’s resolution. This a nasty day for the sustainable manufacturing of British meat. We’ll now take time to assessment the choice and think about the choices accessible to us.”
NGOs that had campaigned towards the event described it as a ‘landmark resolution’, nevertheless. Maintain and Suggestions stated failure to incorporate info on full direct and oblique greenhouse fuel emissions within the software was thought-about grounds for rejection by the council’s planning consultants, in what will likely be ‘a major enhance for local weather campaigners however a damning indictment for UK megafarms’.
Lily O’Mara, Local weather Campaigner at Maintain, stated: “Native authorities are waking as much as the truth of business farming: a harmful and extractive system of meals manufacturing that poses a critical menace to human well being and our nation’s future, each economically and environmentally.
“King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Council has rightly put nature and communities first by saying no to a growth that will have despatched us in utterly the unsuitable route.”
Jake White, head of authorized advocacy on the WWF, stated: “It is a well-deserved win, not only for the surroundings however for the local people who united to oppose this unpopular, illegal and unsustainable megafarm.
“We’re delighted that the individuals of Methwold have gotten the outcome they wished following the council’s sturdy session course of.”
Terry Jermy, the MP for South West Norfolk who had vocally campaigned towards the event, referred to as it a ‘victory for native individuals and the surroundings’, Lynn Information reported.
“I stated from the start, no ifs, no buts, the megafarm shouldn’t go forward and I’m delighted that the applying has been rejected. With over 15,000 objections and quite a few of authorized considerations raised primarily based on environmental breaches this is a crucial victory,” he stated.
A borough council spokesperson stated: “Our position in figuring out this software is to make sure that the planning course of is performed professionally, objectively and totally, and we’re assured that that is what has occurred as we speak.
“We thank all events concerned, particularly the members of our planning workforce and our planning committee, for his or her cautious evaluation and consideration of the problems, to assist us attain this resolution.”
Uphill battle
Cranswick was all the time going through an uphill battle to win the day, after planning officers really useful that the applying needs to be refused, in a 200-page report revealed in March.
With the location mendacity near numerous European protected websites, the report stated Cranswick had did not show that the event ‘wouldn’t lead to vital antagonistic results on the protected websites’.
Additionally they concluded that inadequate environmental info had been submitted to allow the council to achieve a view on the impression of the venture on the surroundings and local weather change.
The report said: “The general public advantages of the event as proposed are outweighed by the potential environmental impacts of the scheme. The Council usually are not ready to totally assess these impacts, regardless of the variety of alternatives offered to the Applicant to submit additional info, and as such the applying needs to be refused.”
Cranswick hit again, issuing a strong response that was closely vital of the council in its assertion to the planning committee.
It reiterated its arguments that the event would guarantee higher use of native land, bettering the prevailing website, which at present permitted by the Surroundings Company to accommodate 29,000 pigs; ship increased welfare for pigs and poultry and enhance British meals safety, decreasing the nation’s reliance on imports.
Cranswick refuted the ‘mega farm’ tag, stating that the pigs, for instance, can be housed in 14 straw-based buildings just like these used throughout the nation.
It stated the applying was about producing extra British meals, to increased welfare requirements, by way of the redevelopment of present farms. The renovated website would produce 0.5% of the pigs, and 0.5% of the chickens, reared within the UK.
“At a time of rising costs, commerce wars and escalating worldwide tensions, now’s the time Britain wants to supply extra meals at house, utilizing trendy, environment friendly and sustainable types of farming,” it stated in its ultimate briefing to the planning committee.
“Not doing so can have a detrimental impression on UK financial progress, on meals costs for shoppers regionally and nationally, and on direct and oblique employment alternatives, inside Norfolk and throughout the broader UK.”
Cranswick stated it ‘absolutely recognised {that a} vary of considerations and views have been expressed by native stakeholders and residents’, and had labored arduous to handle the problems.
However, with reviews that the proposal acquired round 15,000 objections, alongside a handful of submissions in help, Cranswick claimed that 90% of the objections got here from exterior the native space, outlined as a 10km radius across the website, with many from exterior the UK, together with Rome, Lisbon, Calgary and California.
