Objections overruled as planners back slurry lagoon

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Powys councillors have overruled local objections to approve plans for a slurry lagoon in a field near Churchstoke.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Planning committee yesterday (Thursday), councillors received an application from D & S Gethin to create a slurry lagoon and all the associated works on land near Broadway Hall, Snead – just outside Churchstoke.

The proposal is “part-retrospective” as an “ancient hedgerow” has already been removed to open access to the site.

The proposed lagoon would be 40 metres by 100 metres and materials from the excavation would be used to build an earth bank around it which would be two metres high and 4.5 metres wide.

The lagoon would be filled by slurry coming from the family’s Forden farm, which is around seven miles away.

Senior Planning Officer, Rhian Griffiths, who presented the report to committee, advised councillors to approve the scheme.

There have been more than 100 objections lodged against the proposal – including one by Churchstoke Community Council – and several local residents spoke at the meeting against the proposal.

Objector Paul Russell believed that there was a “serious omission” in the report as an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) had not been “mentioned” in it.

Mr Russell: “We maintain that this development should require an EIA.”

Objector Joanna Jones had “assumed” that well-researched and evidenced objections would be read by councillors on the committee to enable them to make an “informed decision.”

Ms Jones said: “I’m very distressed that legitimate objections and questions raised by our community are being dismissed.

“Nowhere in the process does it say that only the case officer reads the objections. It seems utterly undemocratic to me.”

Comments from Cllr Jeremy Brignell-Thorp, who represents the neighbouring ward of Forden and Montgomery, where the Gethin’s farm is located, were read out at the meeting.

Cllr Brignell-Thorp said: “The lagoon will require hundreds of journeys of slurry, causing significant disturbance to all settlements it goes through, yet there has been no assessment relating to this traffic that’s necessary to fill the lagoon.

“We have had no notification of whether this traffic will go through Chirbury or through Montgomery.

“It is clear that an application such as this needs more information and conditions imposed on what route or times are acceptable for those journeys.”

He also questioned why this development was needed so far away from the farm as it would not be “environmentally friendly”.

“I ask the committee to postpone the decision until a traffic impact statement is written and the impacts are fully understood,” said Cllr Brignell-Thorp.

Planning Agent, Richard Corbett, on behalf of the applicants explained that the slurry lagoon is needed so that the farming business can comply with the Welsh Government legal stipulations on Nitrate Vulnerable Zone’s (NVZ).

Mr Corbett said: “They need to have six months’ slurry storage capacity, and all fields have a limit of how much nitrogen can be spread, and when it can be spread.

“Being able to store and use it at the right time is the efficiency the farm business is aiming to achieve.”

He explained this would mean that journeys to take slurry to the site would be happen through the year rather than condensed to a short period when spreading takes place.

Mr Corbett said: “There will be no traffic through Montgomery, it makes no logical sense to travel that way.

“If any of the councillors or planning officers wish to add a condition, we are more than happy to add a route plan on this application.”

Cllr Jonathan Wilkinson (Conservative – Llangyniew and Meifod) said: “We’ve seen applications for slurry storage, and we’ll see more because of the restriction on the spreading windows of farms – it’s effectively farming by calendar.

“They have little option but to seek additional storage.”

He said he was “content” to propose that councillors agree with the officer recommendation and approve the application.

Cllr Elwyn Vaughan (Plaid Cymru - Glantwymyn) seconded the proposal and said: “A condition on the routing plan would be beneficial.

“Not only for Montgomery, but the agent has said that the applicant is willing to do that and it would be silly for us not to take advantage of that.”

The committee moved to a vote which saw 10 councillors vote to approve the application and one councillor vote to abstain.