I SAT in the planning meeting at County Hall, Llandrindod, and watched with shock and disbelief as the planners listened to a catalogue of well-researched objections to the proposed building of chicken sheds on Broadheath Farm, Presteigne, and then meekly followed the recommendations of the planning officer and chairman to give it the green light.

To be fair, the committee did raise several of their own concerns: the fact that the edge of the flood plain on the map comes within a few centimetres of the proposed buildings (we all remember what happened last winter, when the whole area was inundated for many days); the high levels of nitrogen and phosphates leaching into the soil and compromising native species (Radnor Wildlife Trust report that we will no longer see species like wild primroses); the cumulative impact of all these sheds having not been investigated (there are already 100 such units within a five-mile radius).

Yet in spite of the proposed units being built next to the Hindwell Brook (which feeds into the triple SSI River Lugg), the close proximity of Broadheath House and Gardens (designed by Clough Williams Ellis) and Wapley Iron Age Hillfort (major local heritage assets), there being no traffic impact assessment carried out, and ludicrous anomalies in the report outlining what will happen to the tonnes of waste, feathers and carcasses that will be cleared out of the sheds every six weeks, the reply from the planning officers was: ‘’The English Environment Agency has no objection, so neither should you.’’ Our weak and ineffectual county council has set a clear precedent. If these industrial units can be put here, they can put anywhere. So much for democracy.

LIZ SCRANNAGE Presteigne