A LARGE pig farm is being investigated by the council over whether it is following the rules in preventing the spread of a “disgusting” smell.
The smell at Daniels Farm in Claines on the edge of Worcester has been the subject of several complaints and the piggery and is now under investigation by Wychavon District Council over allegedly violating an important condition designed to protect neighbours from the foul stench.
The pig farm off Vicarage Lane, which is owned by North Claines parish councillor Peter Philips, was allowed to double the size of its 1,000-strong piggery in 2020 with the district council’s planning committee giving the green light to the work despite hundreds of complaints from neighbours about the ‘sickening’ smell.
The condition was included by the council instructing the farm to install a high-speed fan system - designed to prevent the ‘sickening’ odour from being made worse - was installed in the old and new livestock buildings and continuously used to protect neighbours from the stench.
Three official complaints have been to the council about the smell in the last year and the farm has been served with two enforcement notices since October.
Holly Jones, director of planning and infrastructure at Wychavon District Council, said: “The council has commenced enforcement action at Daniels Farm to ensure compliance with their planning permission for the livestock building.
“The matter remains ongoing.”
A petition against the farm's expansion gathered more than 1,100 signatures and more than 100 objections were lodged with the council’s planning department including from governors at nearby Claines CE Primary School.
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A plan to convert two of the farm’s cattle sheds into warehouses was rejected by planning officers at the council earlier this month who said the narrow roads, blind bends and difficult “inadequate” junctions around the farm would not be able to cope with the extra traffic.
Despite the farm saying it had held discussions with a local bricklayer about a possible move into the converted cattle sheds, council planning officers said the occupier of the new warehouses would still be “purely speculative” and the number of extra vehicles on the road could not be calculated properly.
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