THE man who has acted as an agent for nine broiler unit applications in Herefordshire says he doesn’t think there will be any more.

Yorkshire-based Ian Pick says an expansion by Herefordshirebased meat producer Cargill, formerly Sun Valley, has resulted in many farms across the county applying to be one of the firm’s suppliers.

The broiler unit expert has overseen the applications that have come in from all four corners of Herefordshire in 2014.

“The applications are very complicated bits of work,” he said.

“There are lots of subjects that need to be covered.

“We’ve been doing it for years but the applications are coming to an end in Herefordshire now.”

He said many companies outside Herefordshire carry out low key expansions, adding the situation is different here because Cargill has picked up a large contract from Tesco and will only choose farmers within 50 miles of their Grandstand Road base in Hereford.

He admits that his firm has been “getting a lot of grief ” from residents who are living close to some of the earmarked sites but says developments in areas such as Derbyshire, where homes would be closer to farms than in Herefordshire, have received no such objections.

One broiler unit application causing concern among residents is in Dorstone, where Charlie Westhead, who owns Neal’s Yard Creamery less than a mile away, says the earmarked chicken farm, which could house 80,000 chickens, “could destroy the Golden Valley”.

That application is likely to be heard by Herefordshire Council’s Planning Committee in the new year.

Seven of the remaining broiler applications have been passed, with the other being withdrawn.