DYMOCK Parish Council has spoken out strongly against plans for an abattoir near the village; but the proposal has won support from some farmers in Gloucestershire and further afield.

Local people have until Wednesday, December 2 to make their views known on an application to the Forest of Dean District Council (planning reference - P1405/16/FUL) for the demolition of an existing poultry shed at Mooroak Farm, Dymock and replacing it with a new abattoir building of 750 square metres.

The applicant, Mohammed Hanif Jaffer, in his design and access statement to the council said: "This is a modest, low level facility".

The design is intended to "improve upon the recommended minimum space allowed for animal species and is designed to both reduce stress and fighting" among the animals.

The premises would be built according to industry guidance and would take into account the need to limit "noise, odour and emission".

But Dymock Parish Council has submitted its "total objection" to the planning application.

The statement from the parish council states: "Our first objection is on behalf of the dozen or so close residential properties who would have to endure the smell and noise caused by such an operation, especially in the heat of summer."

The parish council is also concerned about waste disposal. The statements says of the farm: "When it was run as a poultry farm there was an ongoing problem with waste from the chicken houses contaminating the watercourses flowing from the site to neighbouring properties: both watercourses regularly overflow after heavy rain.

"With this new plan we can see no change in that situation as the application states that the waste will be put on the ground to save fertilising, though why the fertilisation of rough ground is required is beyond us."

And the parish council is concerned about vehicular access to the site, stating that: "We do not believe that the access off the B4215 road is suitable for a business that requires large vehicles to enter and leave the site."

However a number of Gloucestershire farmers, and some from further afield, have written in with identically or similarly worded letters, stating that: "We all need to wake up and take our country's future back, to support locally produced food".

Letter from farmers have also pointed out that the facility could create much-needed jobs in a rural area.

And a number of Gloucestershire residents, many from Gloucester, have written to the district council, many with identically or similarly worded letters, stating that they want to support the proposal because they want to know "where their meat comes from, and that it is produced and farmed locally".