A Perthshire farm’s proposal to rear 140,000 chickens on a site in eastern Perthshire is to be discussed.
The impact of the intensive poultry-rearing facility between Coupar Angus and Meigle will be considered by members of the council’s development management committee today.
The site at Bankhead of Kinloch Farm, north of the A94, is predominantly arable, with the main crops being potatoes, spring barley and soft fruits.
”The proposal seeks to diversify activities at the farm through the introduction of an intensive broiler operation,” states a report by Nick Brian, development quality manager, which will go before the committee.
”Two poultry sheds are proposed to house a total of 140,000 broiler chickens.
”The applicant considers the site to be ideally located for poultry meat production, being located close to two of Scotland’s main chicken-processing facilities at Coupar Angus (5.5km) and Letham, Angus (27km).
”The two sheds would be erected on land immediately north of the main farm buildings on a site which was formerly given over to fruit production under polytunnels.”
The site is currently open countryside, outside of any settlement boundary, and the nearest non-farm dwellings are sited approximately 600m to the south and the east.
Due to the number of birds proposed to be housed and reared, the plan is classed as a major development and the applicant carried out a public consultation exercise.
Environment protection body Sepa has confirmed that the development would require authorisation from it under the Pollution Prevention Control (PCC) regulations and that any issues regarding environmental impact would require to be addressed.
It has been identified that mucking out odours are likely to be most noticeable downwind; however, the operations are relatively short in duration.
An environmental survey concluded that the predicted worst-case odour at the nearest dwelling was likely to be below the Environment Agency benchmark and that the effects would be ”highly unlikely” to cause significant loss of amenity.
Some design concerns had been raised but Mr Brian felt these could be adequately dealt with.
”It is the length of the new buildings, rather than the overall height and width, which is the element of scale that is uncharacteristic of the locality,” he notes.
”The location of the new buildings at a level below that of the main steading group would avoid a skyline and provide a backcloth of building and woodland which would serve to diminish the scale and vertical emphasis of the new structures,” Mr Brian states in his report.
The operation of the units would be based on a cycle of 36 or 45 days, according to the report.
The economic benefits of the development would be construction employment during the four-month building phase, while three to four people would be employed when the facility is in operation, with numerous indirect jobs also supported.
The recommendation to the committee is that the application be approved, subject to a number of conditions about design and planting.