A Herefordshire chicken farm’s bid to expand production has been refused permission, partly due to environmental concerns.

The application by Corbett Farms of Shobdon was to replace two sheds at Park Top Farm, which house about 24,000 laying hens at any one time, with four new ones housing 40,000 birds, extending onto what is now a blackcurrant field.

The new buildings would have been longer, narrower and slightly lower than the current ones. A poultry manager’s bungalow on the farm was also to have been replaced.

Hens at the farm provide eggs for a hatchery, also in Shobdon, from which chicks are distributed to Avara-owned broiler chicken farms in the area.

Poultry units have been increasingly blamed for contributing to pollution in the protected Wye and Lugg rivers. The River Lugg Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) lies just 1.15 miles (1.85km) from the farm.

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The farm’s application gave “insufficient information… to demonstrate that the development proposed will not have any adverse impact or harm the SSSI”, Herefordshire Council development manager Kelly Gibbons said in her decision.

Natural England had said an official Habitat Regulations Assessment would be required for the development, as the Lugg “currently suffers from the effects of point source and diffuse water pollution and levels of phosphates have exceeded the conservation objectives”.

Shobdon Parish Council however raised no objection, and welcomed the resulting demolition of a separate poultry unit at nearby Ledicot that this would bring.

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The plan’s likely impact on the landscape and on the setting of Shobdon Park, a Grade II listed park and garden immediately to the south, and the potential increase in noise, were also given as reasons for refusal.

This was despite the application claiming the redevelopment would reduce noise and light emissions.