Arguments against massive pig and poultry farm in Methwold and Feltwell too persuasive

Independent West Norfolk Councillor Pallavi Devulapalli takes the Friday Politics reins this week and talks about an important planning meeting…

The council has been busy these past few weeks, with several planning meetings, site visits, environment and community panel meetings and audit meetings.

It’s not easy to spot the amount of work that goes on in the background to keep things running smoothly from officers and councillors.

The biggest news was the refusal of planning permission to a pig and poultry farm in and near Methwold/Feltwell. This application had been three years in the making and had provoked a tremendous response from the public during the consultation. More than 15,000 letters and emails were sent to the planning department - a huge number from local people - but also many from as far away as the US and other countries. International bodies like WWF- the World Wildlife Fund - got involved too. The reason for this was that this was going to be one of the biggest poultry farms in Europe if the proposal were to go ahead.

Increasingly, we live in a more fragile world with an unpredictable climate due to increasing greenhouse emissions and worsening air, water and sewage pollution. Our council ecologist was clear in her submission that irreversible harm would be done to the soil if this unit were given the go-ahead. Residents were concerned about traffic on the roads including several HGV movements a day quite close to the Methwold school, as well as smell from the factory farm, the soil and water pollution. One speaker pointed to the fate of the River Wye which had literally turned to green soup as a result of emissions from the nearby poultry farm being discharged into it.

The committee were told that two employees would be housed nearby to look after three quarters of a million chickens . Another two employees would look after nearly 18,000 pigs . It was very hard to understand how this would be adequate care, even with the best modern farming techniques.

There were several excellent speakers; the Cranswick speaker also spoke very well pleading for a farm that would produce food within the country and maintain good standards within British law. In the end however, the arguments against the proposal were too persuasive. As I voted, I reflected internally that we need to put our collective intelligence to use now to secure healthy food supplies for ourselves while also looking after the natural world.

In this day and age, we have the benefit of considerable advances in our understanding of the natural world, and fantastic technology - we must put this to good use and come up with intelligent and humane ways of living, and this must include the way we treat animals.

I joined the Land Workers Association (landworkersalliance.org.uk) this year as a supporter, and a curious bystander, to see what alternatives there are to traditional farming. I have been amazed by the enthusiasm of the people within this body, who are mostly young, eager to learn and keen to do the right thing for the planet and for themselves. It will be interesting to see what impact they have on farming in general, and whether we will succeed in promoting small-scale farms as the way forward to a sustainable future.

LWA members were invited to a tour of Wakelyns (wakelyns.co.uk) in Suffolk where the owners are experimenting with different ways of farming on their land, including giving some of it over to the community. It was a very interesting trip, and I shall continue to watch developments with interest.

This year I also joined a lovely group of ladies called Soroptimist's International, King’s Lynn (sigbi.org/kings-lynn).

Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI) has over 5,000 members in 250 Clubs in 18 countries including Great Britain, Ireland and countries in Asia and the Caribbean, who work at a local, national and international level to educate, empower and enable women and girls.

It is a friendly club where members have fun while also raising awareness and raising funds for good causes and I think my association with them will last for many years to come. We welcome new members, so if anyone is interested please use the contact details on the website to get in touch.