Mega chicken farm expansion plan withdrawn

Plans to double the size of a Norfolk poultry farm have been withdrawn following public anger over building work starting before permission was granted.

Boparan applied in September last year to build new sheds at Brookside Farm in Great Hockham to produce more than 2.1 million chickens annually.

But this was months after residents noticed construction work had already started.

It led to Breckland Council taking enforcement action and ordering the firm to stop any building work. The scheme has now been withdrawn altogether.

2Agriculture, a company owned by Boparan which manages the farm, refused to answer why the plans have been withdrawn.

It also did not respond to questions over why the firm breached planning rules and began constructing new sheds without permission.

One key issue the plans faced was an objection from the Environment Agency, which said it needed more information to show the expansion would not lead to pollution and over abstraction of water sources.

Officials described the area as facing "serious water stress" in a report.

While it has been withdrawn, a planning agent for the firm said it would lodge a revised application.

A spokesperson for 2Agriculture said: "We continue to work with the local planning authority to find a solution to underpin food security and employment in the rural economy."

Rhian Pilkington, 56, who lives near Brookside Farm, said she was "exceedingly relieved" the plan had been withdrawn.

"I appreciate that chicken production on this scale can potentially be lucrative, but I question that this should ever be valued above people's health and that of the biodiverse wildlife inhabiting the adjacent Frosts Common," she said.

Maya Pardo, director of Communities Against Factory Farming, a group that campaigned against the plans, also praised the move.

"Stopping this destructive factory farm is a major win for the local community, which has endured so much stress for Boparan's corporate greed," she said.

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