A FARMING company has renewed its bid to build a large poultry farm on the edge of York.

H Barker and Sons have resubmitted their planning application for six poultry sheds - which would house 288,000 hens at a time - on farmland near Rufforth, after an earlier bid for the development was withdrawn.

Scores of objections had been made to the earlier application by people opposing the intensive farming methods, and by neighbours worried about the smell, the impact on the greenbelt, and traffic on the narrow country lanes. Both York Outer MP Julian Sturdy and Rural West ward councillor Chris Steward added their voices to the campaign against the plans.

More than 20 written objections have already been submitted to the fresh plans, and animal welfare campaigners PETA UK are urging people to write to the planning department opposing the application.

That first application was withdrawn after City of York Council’s planning officers published a report recommending planning permission be refused. They said the six 2,684 sq m sheds would harm the greenbelt and the landscape, be a danger to the nearby Rufforth airfield, and would cause a flood and pollution risk.

Now documents for the fresh application show planning agents Carter Jonas arguing that agricultural buildings like the chicken sheds are appropriate in the greenbelt. The poultry farm would attract fewer wild birds and therefore be less of a threat to the airfield than alternatives like free range pig units or arable farming, they add, while manure and slurry would not be stored outside or spread on fields so the area should not suffer from smells or pollution running off the site.

The planning statement says: “The proposal would assist in the production of environmentally and welfare friendly source of food and meat (reducing its carbon footprint) and contribute to the security of supply which is important socially, economically and environmentally for York and the wider Yorkshire and Humber Region.”

Many of the objections already lodged cite animal welfare fears, but other talk about the HGVs which would service the farm, bringing an increase in heavy traffic to the roads around the village of Rufforth.