Poultry farm approval to be reversed after council concedes over judicial review threat

The council approved plans for the construction of two new poultry houses on a farm in Willoughbridge in October.

The site, which is on the Staffordshire-Shropshire border, would have housed around 70,000 chickens at a time under the proposals, with a total annual production of approximately 525,000 chickens per year.

The Coalition Against Factory Farming (CAFF) later issued a pre-action protocol letter regarding the decision, claiming the approval breached the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations.

In early November 2025, the council responded to CAFF and conceded that the decision should be quashed.

Seven grounds were advanced in its judicial review threat, including an allegation that the council's planning officer failed to adequately consider the Schedule 3 factors required under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations.

In particular, CAFF argued that the EIA screening unlawfully overlooked cumulative odour, pollution, nuisance, and water-abstraction impacts when assessed alongside the neighbouring intensive dairy unit, as well as downstream effects such as manure-related water and air pollution, dust, and project-specific greenhouse gas emissions.

The letter before claim further argued that these omissions rendered the screening incomplete and unlawful, and that a councillor also misdirected himself in believing he could not take into consideration the Animal Welfare Charter, and by extension, animal welfare.

Acland Bryant of the Garden Court Environmental Law & Climate Justice Team acted for the group. Bryant was instructed by Matthew McFeeley at Richard Buxton Solicitors.

CAFF was also originally supported by the Environmental Law Foundation.

Matthew McFeeley, partner at Richard Buxton Solicitors, who represented CAFF in this challenge, said the result "shows the importance of councils complying with the Environmental Impact Assessment regime".

He added: "An intensive poultry unit can have significant environmental effects, and it is essential that screening decisions are available to the public for scrutiny. This result is a clear reminder that those requirements are not optional."

A spokesperson for the Environmental Law Foundation, said: "When CAFF got in touch with ELF about this planning application, we were extremely concerned about the disregard of the environmental impacts.

"Intensive livestock development like these are high emitters of greenhouse gases. They are sites of intense suffering for the animals who live in deprived conditions, subjected to cruel treatment. These developments create masses of nuisance and pollution, burdening the health of local communities and environment."

Maya Pardo, legal strategy coordinator at CAFF, said: "Councils have full discretion to consider animal welfare — and it's time they used it.

"Factory farms cause intense animal suffering: overcrowded sheds, crippling growth rates, and conditions no animal should endure. These harms must carry real weight in planning, not be brushed aside."

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has been approached for comment.

Adam Carey