Plans for two new chicken sheds are turned down

TWO new poultry units at a farm approved a year ago have now been refused by councillors after their original decision was overturned.

- TWM OWEN

Councillors had granted planning permission in October last year for the two giant chicken sheds, to each house 42,000 birds destined for dinner plates, but environmental charity the Woodland Trust challenged the decision through the courts.

As a result of the charity's judicial review, the decision was overturned in January, when it was determined the application, at Coombe Farm, in the Wye Valley at Shirenewton, near Chepstow, should have been accompanied by an environmental impact assessment.

Monmouthshire County Council's chief planning officer Andrew Jones told the planning committee's November meeting that a new application had been submitted, but the required environmental statement failed to satisfy the concerns of the council's in-house ecologist.

The farm already houses 220,000 broiler chickens.