Take Action Against Proposed 2,000 Pig Farm

Broadlands District Council is considering a planning application for an intensive farm holding up to 2,000 pigs.

If you can spare a minute to say NO to this proposal, please email: planning@broadland.gov.uk and have your voice heard! They accept objections nationwide, so it doesn’t matter if you’re not from the local region.

Objections work best when they are personalised, as councils tend to ignore duplicated objections even if they’re from different people. Sadly, animal welfare is not considered a relevant objection. So, we have limited our objections to only those that the council consider ‘valid’.

Of course, if enough people object on the following grounds then we will also protect pigs from a lifetime of misery on a new factory farm. Viva! has investigated pig farms, from Hogwood to Flat House Farm, and exposed the horrific reality of factory farming. Please give us a moment of your time to take action for pigs and make clear that we won’t accept more factory farms!

Issues to include in your objection:

Please email your objection to: planning@broadland.gov.uk and make sure to put the following points in your own words so that the council sees how many people object to yet another intensive farm. Quote planning number 20210010 in your subject line.

Pandemics

A pig farm housing 2,000 pigs would further increase the UK’s risk to future pandemics and zoonotic diseases, such as swine flu which caused such devastation in recent years. Three in every four of new or emerging infectious diseases come from animals. We need fewer animal farms, not more, if we want to protect public health.

Proximity to homes

This application is proposing that residents who live within 400 metres of the premises will have to endure living alongside a pig farm housing 2,000 pigs, and there are several residences within a kilometre of the area including houses on School Road, Buckenham Road, Willow Close, Christine Avenue and Farm Close who will be negatively affected by the smell, noise and pollution of such a huge farm.

SSSIs and vital ecosystems

The proposed site has 12 SSSIs (sites of special scientific interest) within just 10km of it, all of which are under special protection and/or are areas of special conservation. Many of these are wetlands, such as Ducan’s Marsh, one of the richest areas of unimproved wet valley grassland, and Poplar Farm Meadows. Wetlands are of vital importance in protecting species and our planet. This farm threatens to allow contaminated run-off into wetlands, posing risks to wildlife and people’s enjoyment of nature.

Noise pollution

In the noise management plan the applicant makes no mention of the pigs themselves as a source of noise; 2,000 pigs kept in close confinement will make a huge amount of noise and the proposal is therefore unacceptable for the residents’ and local community’s wellbeing.

Visual impact

The proposed buildings would be located on a ridge, prominent on the skyline from the North, East and South. The parish council has noted that it does not see why such a farm should be on a hill, visible to so many residents. It would negatively impact the views from many places, and there is no mention of the applicant proposing any positive measures such as planting native trees to screen the farm from view.

Insufficient evidence

Documents repeatedly show that the applicant has failed to provide sufficient material for such a planning application; twice Natural England has stated they can’t even provide a comment on the application because they have far too little detail even to answer it. When Natural England has enough evidence to respond, you must then give people a 21-day consultation period to respond. With this in mind, the application cannot possibly be closed to people on the 16th April and must be extended to provide sufficient time for more evidence to be provided by the applicant.

Hedgerow procedure

The Transport Statement says that c. 20 metres of hedgerows will be removed with no mention of the applicant paying for the planting of 20 metres of hedgerows elsewhere to compensate. There is also no mention of whether the hedgerows are protected or not, which must be provided before there is even a thought of removing hedgerows. Please see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/countryside-hedgerows-regulation-and-management for more information on the proper conduct of hedgerow removal. We would like to see evidence that the applicant is following the proper legal procedure.