Watch more of our videos on Shots! and live on Freeview channel 276 River Action is funding an application for a judicial review over the council's decision to approve a 230,000-bird unit at North Farm , Felton Butler – run by LJ Cooke & Son. The application was approved by the council in May after nearly seven years of back-and-forth over the plans. River Action is a group focused on campaigning over pollution affecting waterways – specifically from agriculture, such as large egg farms.
It has been campaigning over the state of the River Wye since 2021. The claimant, Dr Alison Caffyn, who lives in Shropshire and is a member of River Action’s advisory board, is represented by the environment team at law firm Leigh Day. Dr Caffyn said: "I am delighted to have the opportunity, supported by River Action, to challenge this attempt to impose yet another massive factory farm upon the beautiful Shropshire countryside.
"Enough is enough. We simply cannot allow the creation of more of these giant clusters of polluting poultry units. "There are already well over 20 million chickens in Shropshire, we don’t need more.
Before we know it, the River Severn will soon be suffering the same pollution load as the neighbouring Wye – all because of these misguided and ill-informed planning decisions by Shropshire Council." Charles Watson, chair of River Action, said that planning applications for chicken farms across Powys and Herefordshire had been treated as individual applications, r.
