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09
Aug
Protestors urge council to reject huge chicken farm near Ripon
About 30 people took part in a protest yesterday (August 8) against plans to rear 2.7 million chickens for food on land near Ripon.
Forest Poultry has applied to create a broiler chicken unit consisting of six, 126-metre long poultry houses at Underlands Lane, Melmerby.
It claims the unit would be is “a sustainable and policy-compliant form of agricultural development within a suitable rural location” that will reduce dependency on imported chicken.
The poultry houses would rear 7.5 flocks of 360,000 chicks each year, but the sheer size of the proposed development, along with its intensive nature has raised environmental, animal welfare and planning concerns.
The application has attracted 438 objections, and just one expression of support, on North Yorkshire Council’s planning portal and 18,000 people have signed a petition by the campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals urging the council to reject the scheme.
Protestors from Darlington, York and Harrogate were amongst those at Melmerby yesterday.
Protestors on August 8.
Ripon campaigner Brian McHugh said:
It is worrying that at this late stage of the process, the people of Melmerby are still being ignored by the applicant and key information is missing. It really feels like this is being pushed through, regardless of what the locals think.
Background ammonia concentrations already exceed critical levels and this is accepted by the applicant. The intrusive smell of 2.7 million chickens is a real concern and hasn’t been fully addressed in the planning documents.
What is missed in the documents is that to feed almost three million chickens, we will need to import huge amounts of chicken feed — so it is not a strong argument to say that this facility is needed to reduce imports, when it is totally reliant on imported feed.
Then there are the animal welfare issues. There is no assessment in the documents of an avian influenza risk despite recent outbreaks in Bedale. Then we have the living conditions themselves — the 30 to 35 day life span of the birds and 360,000 crowded together at any one time.
Aug 8 2026 Melmerby
Mr McHugh added the council’s Skipton and Ripon planning committee “need to be asking serious questions about why we have so many unsubstantiated and inconsistent claims in this application”.
The Environment Agency has said it has not identified any major environmental concerns, adding:
“The applicant operates several poultry sites in the area, and all sites have a good compliance history. Having read the documentation provided in reference to the erection of a poultry farm comprising six poultry houses and associated infrastructure, we have not identified any major environmental concerns.”
A design and access statement in support of the plans says overseas poultry now accounts for 25% of UK consumption, with most imported birds coming from Thailand, Poland and Brazil, and the proposed development “responds to a clear and evidenced national need to increase domestic poultry production capacity within the United Kingdom”.
The council will decide whether to accept or reject the application.
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