A NATIONAL charity opposed to animal cruelty has launched a letter of objection against plans for one of the largest pig farms in the UK.
Viva! has now joined a residents’ fight against a proposed application to build a 30-acre industrial pig-rearing farm at land adjacent to Foston Prison.
The charity’s campaigns manager Justin Kirswell (right) was contacted by local residents after his recent success in stopping a similar application in Lincolnshire being accepted.
Applicants Midland Pig Producers (MPP) want to build a feed mill, hoppers, mess block, water treatment buildings and storage buildings, which it says would harness the methane power of the 2,500 sows to power a huge generator feeding into the national grid, and will not produce bad smells.
However a protest group believes the major development will increase health and safety issues and traffic.
In a letter sent exclusively to the Mail, Mr Kirswell outlines what the charity and residents believe to be potential hazards if the pig farm is given the green light at a planning meeting next month.
He suggests it is ‘possibly the largest pig farm in the UK with between 26,000 and 30,000 pigs. This is wholly inappropriate, and inappropriate to situate it on greenfield land.’
With the size of the farm, he believes that animal welfare has not been taken into account.
He said: “Despite the MPP’s assertion that animal welfare will be improved on the farm, we believe it will be impossible to maintain good animal welfare overall on an enterprise of this size.
“We doubt that South Derbyshire would want to be associated with a dedicated campaign to strip the fields of the countryside of all farmed animals.
“Intense scrutiny should be given to the wisdom of siting what could be Britain’s largest ever pig unit so close to where people live.”
However, the MPP dismisses this, saying: “The units have been designed with the help of several leading animal welfare groups to ensure the highest standards of animal welfare. MPP is part of the internationally recognised Genesis Quality Assurance scheme, which includes independent quarterly veterinary inspections.”
Viva! also suggests that the farm would produce twice as much global warming in equivalent gases annually as Foston, through methane from breath and flatus.
Mr Kirswell said: “We do not see any indication that methane excreted from the animals themselves will be controlled.”
With regards to noise, the MPP said: “Any noise will be minimal and will not be heard over the constant background noise generated by the A50.”
However Viva! and residents believe that noise from the carriageway is not constant, “so noise from the pig farm may dominate and be a persistent nuisance to the properties neighbouring it at certain times of the day.”
