Chicken manure plant plans rejected

Plans to build a large plant to dispose of chicken waste at a Herefordshire farm have been refused by the county council.

An application was first submitted more than three years ago to permit the new unit at Whitwick Manor, between Bromyard and Hereford.

The anaerobic digestion plant would have taken in about 100,000 tonnes of poultry manure a year along with other food and farming waste, generating enough natural gas to supply about 6,000 homes.

But the plans proved highly contentious, with nearly 350 objections lodged. Planning officers ruled the scheme should be refused, with the project since rejected.

Officers' report said the plant would be in the wrong place for "a large treatment facility", which under county planning policy were to be "within the designated strategic employment areas".

"The scheme represents a stand-alone, industrial-scale facility with only limited connection to the surrounding rural economy and does not constitute a diversification of an existing agricultural enterprise," according to the 77-page document.

The plant would also appear as a "visually intrusive complex" in the rural landscape, and be "wholly uncharacteristic", despite a proposed "bund" or earth mound and woodland planting around it.

There was also doubt over the scheme's impacts on water quality in local watercourses, and on air quality from gas emissions including ammonia.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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