CAMPAIGNERS in Wycliffe and Thorpe are celebrating after plans for a nearby slurry pit, larger than an Olympic swimming pool, were rejected.
Durham County Council’s south and west planning committee voted 7-4 against a proposal to build the lagoon after questions were raised about why pig faeces was being imported from North Yorkshire into County Durham.
Planning officer Stephen Pilkington recommended approval for the proposal by G&M Westgarth Ltd, earmarked for land north of Thorpe Farm caravan site, when he spoke to the committee last week.
He said that as it was a prior notification application, only the location of the agricultural development could be considered.
This meant that its impact on highway safety, the landscape and residential amenity were the only deciding factors. He noted that neither the county’s landscape officer or highways authority had objected to the scheme.
He concluded: “The test is whether it is reasonably necessary, which we consider it is in this instance.”
However, speaking on behalf of the neighbours, resident Brenda Bayles said G&M Westgarth, which is based at Newsham Hall Farm, in North Yorkshire, has about 7,500 pigs and the proposed pit would have capacity for 1.97m gallons of pig slurry.
She added: “Our lives 400 metres down wind of nearly two million gallons of liquid pig faeces are going to be impacted. Councillors, I would beseech you to consider, that if you lived where we do, whether the siting, size and scale of what is being proposed is fair, reasonable and can be justified.”
Land agent for nearby Rokeby Estate William Salvin described the lagoon as an “engineered structure that will appear wholly alien and out of sorts with the open unspoilt countryside to which it will be inserted”,
He also noted it would be in conflict with several policies within the County Durham Plan. Mr Salvin added that the wagons transporting the slurry would be crossing the A66 yet National Highways had not been consulted on the issue, nor were North Yorkshire Council, the Environment Agency and Natural England.
He asked that the development be considered through a full planning application so that more statutory consultees could have a say.
Andy Darby, of ELG Planning, agent for Newsham Hall Farm, reiterated the limited considerations that can be given to prior notification applications.
He said: “The grass embankments of the proposed lagoon will largely not be visible.
“They will certainly not be a visually intrusive prominent feature within the landscape setting which is the key consideration in coming to a decision.”
Committee member Cllr Maura McKeon questioned why the pit was being built so far from the pigs that were producing the slurry.
She said: “The pigs are in another county. It seems like it is a very large structure to have so far away from where the pigs actually are. Those pigs aren’t even Durham pigs, they are Yorkshire pigs, they probably have a different pig accent and oink in a slightly different way.
“I think there has been a bit of smoke and mirrors because the application for having the pigs was in a completely different local authority and clearly this is needed to meet the conditions of that planning application.”
Cllr George Richardson agreed and moved that the application be rejected because of the pit’s impact on the general amenity of the neighbours.
His motion was seconded by Cllr Michael Stead.
There were no abstentions when the motion was carried by seven votes to four.
