Abattoir bid Animal rights activists and villagers united in opposition

PEOPLE living in a village near Bristol have started a campaign to try to stop an abattoir on their doorstep from expanding - and have received the support of a group of animal rights activists from across the region who have been campaigning against it for years.

- Tristan CORK

Some of those who attended a public meeting in the village hall at Westerleigh near Bristol to gather opinion on the proposals to expand the nearby abattoir

People in the village of Westerleigh, near Yate, held a meeting to kickstart their campaign to persuade local council planners to refuse permission for the plan, which has been submitted to South Gloucestershire Council.

Pilgrims Europe, which runs the large-scale abattoir at Oakley Grange Farm, has applied to the council for a major transformation of the site.

The firm wants to demolish and rebuild some parts of the site on the edge of the village, and create a new chill storage room, a bone trailer with an attached waste storage area, a new lairage building with a covered canopy and internal rooms, a new lorry park, a lorry wash, an effluent tank, security cabin, chemical store and a new entrance for lorries.

The major investment has been supported by a raft of reports into everything from the impact on the landscape and drainage to the noise and smells from the abattoir and how they will change with the new development.