Cranswick is seeking planning permission from King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council to expand its existing site in Methwold.
If the plans were to go ahead, the farm would be capable of rearing more than five million chickens and 45,000 pigs per year.
However, the council’s planning committee has been urged to reject the application in a new 200-page report published by planning officers.
In the report, the planning officers said that Cranswick had to failed to “demonstrate that the development would not result in significant adverse effects on the protected sites”, while there was “insufficient environmental information to enable the council to reach a view”.
The council planning committee will meet next month to determine the application.
In response, a Cranswick spokesperson said: “The UK needs to produce more food, to a higher welfare standard, and reduce reliance on imported products. To support this, more investment in farms across the country will be required.
“A farm has been operating on this site since the 1960s. Our plans involve modernising the site, ensuring high standards of animal welfare, including lower stocking density for chickens and more space to roam.
“Crucially, by redeveloping this farm, we will provide a strong supply of sustainable, affordable, high quality, British pork and chicken. This will reduce the need for more foreign food imports and reduce emissions from the production and transportation of foreign pork and chicken into the UK.”
Pushback
The plans have received plenty of pushback from environmental and animal welfare groups, as well as local people, with 12,604 objections made to the project during the formal consultation.
Campaign groups Feedback Global and Sustain made a joint submission to the consultation that called for project to be blocked.
Speaking after news emerged that the plans would be blocked, Lily O’Mara, climate justice officer at Sustain, commented: “Local authorities are finally waking up to the reality of industrial farming: a damaging and extractive system of food production that poses a serious threat to human health and our country’s environmental future.
“We warmly welcome the recommendation from King’s Lynn planning officers, who have rightly put nature and communities first by advising refusal of what would be one of the largest factory farms in Europe.”
Labour MP for South West Norfolk, Terry Jermy, also wrote a letter to the Environment Agency opposing the plans.
“I believe this will cause unnecessary and damaging pollution which will adversely affect people and biodiversity,” he said.
“At a time when it is critical to implement measures to improve the environment, it would be a travesty to permit this damaging development.
“The rise of megafarms in Norfolk has become a controversial topic among local farmers, although few are willing to speak publicly on the matter. Recent figures from the Environment Agency show there have been 32 applications for intensive farming sites in the county in the last three years.”
