Jubilant villagers cheered and hugged as an application for a US-style megafarm rearing up to 714,000 chickens and 14,000 pigs was turned down today.
Food giant Cranswick wanted to house the animals just 400 yards apart at a massive complex between two Norfolk villages.
But it triggered more than 15,000 formal objections as locals in Methwold and Feltwell and environmental campaigners warned the facility would have a ‘catastrophic’ effect on the community by belching out foul odours including ammonia fumes, attracting swarms of flies and resulting in thousands of lorries thundering past on local roads.
There were also concerns about property prices collapsing and homes becoming unsellable.
Separate applications for the two sites came before a special planning committee of the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk today, where the nine councillors voted against them unanimously.
Overwhelmed objectors celebrated the David and Goliath victory – although Cranswick warned it would now consider its options.
Methwold resident Alison Webb, 63, said: ‘It’s phenomenal – not just for the residents who have had to live with this nightmare for over three years but it speaks volumes about how people are taking our beautiful country and nature seriously.
‘We’ve stood up to this massive company and won. It means that we can continue to live our lives as intended.’
A view of the old chicken sheds which would be demolished to make way for 20 giant new sheds at Methwold, Norfolk
Another local, travel consultant Jan Palmer, 58, added: ‘These multi-billion pound food giants simply cannot be allowed to continue bulldozing their way into rural areas, bringing nothing but pollution and the destruction of nature with them.’
Lily O’Mara, of food and farming campaigners Sustain, said: ‘Local authorities are waking up to the reality of industrial farming – a damaging and extractive system of food production that poses a serious threat to human wealth and our country’s future, both economically and environmentally.’
The three-year planning nightmare began when Cranswick, which supplies meat to major supermarkets, revealed its intentions for the former World War II airfield.
The spot is in an area of outstanding natural beauty with SSSIs (Sites of Special Scientific Interest), SPAs (Special Protection Areas) and SACs (Special Areas of Concern), which help attract holidaymakers who bring investment to the region.
Under the proposals, a broiler unit for chickens would have been housed in 20 sheds, each measuring 320ft by 79ft, with enough floor space to hold 43,500 birds at a time and produce six million per year.
The birds would be hatched in the sheds from eggs laid at nearby farms before being transported to Cranswick’s plant in Eye, Suffolk, for processing when seven weeks old.
The pigs would have been in 14 sheds measuring 230ft by 49ft, each one holding 1,000 animals and capable of producing 56,000 annually.
They would be moved to a ‘finishing unit’ when 12 weeks old and weighing around 77lbs.
An aerial view of old and dilapidated chicken sheds at Methwold
They would stay indoors for another 12 weeks until reaching their target weight of around 240lbs when they would be ready for slaughter.
Barry Lock, of Cranswick, told the meeting there were already 29,000 pigs on the site and claimed most of the objections came from people who didn’t live in the area.
Methwold resident Alison Webb, 63, said after the the plans were turned down: ‘We’ve stood up to this massive company and won.’
He also argued it was vital for UK food security, with most of the produce to be consumed here, while the sites would produce natural fertiliser as well as chicken waste used to help fuel a local power station.
‘The Highways Agency and Environment Agency are not objecting to the development,’ he pointed out.
Jason Aldiss, of the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers, added: ‘The site is not only environmentally responsible, it is leading the way.’
But ward councillor Tom Ryves said: ‘We just think this application is too big, too threatening of our balanced environment and too damaging to our local economy.’
It wouldn’t help food security because ‘intensive pig and chicken production requires large inputs of grain and protein and is reliant on imported soy from South America’, he added.
Methwold parish councillor Martin French said feelings were ‘running very high’ in the village as the impact would be ‘horrendous’.
Planning documents showing the 14 proposed new pigs sheds
A view of the old chicken sheds which would have been demolished by food giant Cranswick
Cranswick, the giant food firm behind the plans, insisted the two developments between Methwold and Feltwell in Norfolk wouldn’t affect the local environment
Residents said it would amount to a huge ‘megafarm’ which would churn out foul odours including ammonia fumes
‘We did invite Cranswick to a public meeting but they declined our invitation on the grounds of the safety of their employees,’ he told the committee.
Fears had grown about the megafarm as residents near other Cranswick developments spoke out about how they had affected them, as reported previously by MailOnline.
Villagers near a much smaller chicken plant in Westhall, near Halesworth in Suffolk, have complained about being plagued by flies for the past two summers.
And locals in Stow Bedon, Norfolk, claim to have suffered nose bleeds, headaches, breathing problems and spoiled food due to the stench of ammonia from a pig farm.
Objectors with placards protested outside King’s Lynn town hall before today’s meeting started. Inside the ornate council chamber, five large oil paintings were covered in polythene in case animal rights protesters vandalised them.
Borough council officers had recommended the applications be turned down.
The committee was told by its legal advisor that it faced a judicial review if it approved the plans but there could be an appeal if it refused them.
The meeting also heard Cranswick had not supplied all the environmental information required, including on carbon emissions.
A Cranswick spokesman said after the vote: ‘We are incredibly disappointed by today’s decision. This is a bad day for the sustainable production of British meat.
‘We’ll now take time to review the decision and consider the options available to us.’
But the borough council said: ‘Our role in determining this application is to ensure that the planning process is conducted professionally, objectively and thoroughly and we are confident that this is what has happened today.’
Last year, Compassion in World Farming warned data showed a 20 per cent increase in megafarms since 2016, with 1,176 operating in the UK compared to 974 in 2016.
It said they kept animals in ‘cramped and crowded spaces’, created the ‘perfect breeding ground for diseases to spread and evolve’ and fuelled the ‘overconsumption’ of meat.
