A COUNTY councillor claimed anaerobic digesters are ruining the dairy farming industry at a planning meeting.

At Herefordshire Council's planning committee meeting last Wednesday an anaerobic digester was approved for Wall End Farm in Monkland.

But Cllr Dave Greenhow, who voted against it, said: "Dairy farmers rely on growing maize- it is very important to the diet of cows. They have to rent out ground to produce this maize and import it in.

"In days gone by they found field for maize quite easily. Now, because of these digesters, they find it harder to find."

He said farmers who want to put up digesters can afford to pay huge rents, but the dairy farmers cannot match it.

Cllr Greenhow said: "They are ruining the livestock industry. They are ruining our dairy farmers."

The meeting heard there are 13 anaerobic digesters in the county.

They convert organic material, such as slurry, energy crops and food waste, into biogas which can then be used to produce renewable energy.

The applicant, Mr H Bengough, proposed to use maize, beet, whole crop (wheat) and chicken litter in the digester- some of which he would grow on his 900 acre farm (of which he rents 400 acres out currently) and some of which would be imported in.

Concerns were raised about the extra movement of tractors to and from the farm on the "narrow" country roads.

The committee heard a traffic management plan would have to be drawn up before the development went ahead and this would include putting in passing places on a country lane, the cost of which would be met by the applicant.

But Cllr Jim Kenyon questioned who would enforce the traffic management system, and said he was concerned about the safety of walkers, riders and cyclists who use the roads.

Cllr Felicity Norman said she was broadly in favour of anaerobic digesters, compared to other ways of producing energy.

But she said: "I am very concerned we are growing crops to go into energy production.

"If we were using waste to go into them- that is efficient. When you start putting what could be food crops into it, I have rather different feelings about it."

Cllr Peter McCaull added: "At the moment it is the subsidy which is encouraging farmers to do them. We might be able to keep ourselves warm with the energy they provide but we might die of starvation with the lack of food."

He said he believes it is totally wrong to produce crops for energy rather than food.

A majority approved the application, with the assurance a traffic management plan would be in place.