AS councillors were ushered into County Hall to attend the full council meeting last week, they were met by protesters campaigning against the local authority’s approval of the county’s numerous Intensive Poultry Units (IPUs).
On Thursday, March 2, Powys County Council (PCC) representatives were met in Llandrindod Wells by Extinction Rebellion members from Powys groups and concerned members of other local groups.
They were handed letters criticising the council’s planning committee for approving planning applications for new, and extensions to, existing IPUs with what they feel is no consideration for the environmental impacts of their decisions and with no consultation with local residents.
Since 2015, over 130 poultry unit applications have been approved by Powys County Council, a number which dwarfs similar applications approved throughout the rest of Wales and the neighbouring English counties of Herefordshire and Shropshire.
“The committee seems to have forgotten that PCC declared a climate emergency in 2021 and as recently as October 2022 recognised a nature or environmental emergency," said the group in an email, in which it also claimed the committee is "skewed to the right".
“Sadly, planning committee members have ignored this. As residents and voters, it saddens us that Powys has been named the ‘Poultry Capital of Wales’ and we recognise this as the result of inaction by our council."
XR said Natural Resources Wales had now found a correlation between IPUs and the condition of the River Wye.
“In February 2022 the Nutrient Management Board declared that the ‘Wye will be in an irreversibly worse condition within two years unless swift action is taken’," the statement added.
"We only have one year left.
“The demonstrators recognise the dilemma faced by farmers, especially at the present time, but feel that public sympathy and support will not result from more IPUs, which are damaging the qualities which make Powys so attractive to residents and visitors alike.
“IPUs are putting our landscape, air quality, the potential death of our watercourses and associated wildlife at huge risk."
Councillor Jake Berriman, cabinet member for a Connected Powys, said he had spoken to protestors, adding: “In determining planning applications for IPUs, the council always follows the prevailing legislation, regulations, planning policy and guidance that is in place when a decision is taken.
"Comments made by statutory consultees, including Natural Resources Wales, and non-statutory consultees are also taken into account.
“The council’s planning, taxi licensing and rights of way committee has to be a politically balanced committee so that it complies with the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990.
“However, the committee considers and determines all applications on their individual merits in accordance with relevant planning legislation, policies and material planning considerations.
“Introducing a legislative moratorium on any form of development is a matter for the Welsh Government’s consideration and not one that can be taken by an individual local authority."
According to the Brecon and Radnor branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, there are more than 300 chicken sheds in Powys where either planning consent has been given or the application is in planning – with these farms said to contain over 10 million birds, according to information provided by Powys County Council’s own planning department website.
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