PIG FARMING
Swine bouquet
VILLAGERS in Stow Bedon, Norfolk, are being plagued by strong ammonia odours from a nearby pig farm which continues to operate despite breaching its planning conditions.
Cherry Tree Farm contains 7,000 pigs owned by Cranswick plc, one of the UK’s largest meat producers. When the farm was built four years ago, Cranswick agreed to build sheds with corrugated metal walls. Instead they were built with flexible curtain walls which means strong chemical smells waft through the sides of the barn and hang over nearby residences.
Four years after the buildings were erected, Breckland Council finally brought enforcement action against the farm for not erecting the correct walls to the sheds, causing pollution. Cranswick applied for retrospective planning permission but the council refused on the grounds that the meat producer had failed to provide an Environmental Impact Assessment.