PLANS to rear 16,000 chickens in a shed near Llandeilo have been rejected by Carmarthenshire Council.

The applicant’s agent said the scheme proposed on land at Glanmyddyfi, Pentrefelin – around two miles west of the town – would provide employment for the applicant’s son and give the agricultural holding greater financial sustainability.

The agent said the scheme was smaller than a 32,000-chicken shed which had previously been turned down by the council at the same site, and that it would not detrimentally impact on the area’s biodiversity or ecology.

Objectors said they were concerned about the construction of a large shed on a field, manure smells, noise, and the operation’s potential impact on the nearby River Myddyfi, which flows into the River Towy.

Several objectors described the proposal as “an unnecessary assault on the landscape”, while the Carmarthenshire Fishermen’s Federation described the final stretch of River Myddyfi as being polluted and “looking like a Third World river”.

The proposed chicken shed would have accommodated a packing room, egg store and office as well as an area for the free range birds. Four full and part-time staff would have worked there.

The planning statement accompanying the application said three lorry trips per week would have delivered feed and collected eggs, with manure taken away every four days.

All foul water would have been disposed via a new septic tank or other self-contained system, greenery was proposed to help screen the development – and a manure management plan and amonia report were also submitted.

The planning statement said: “In summary, the proposal’s form and scale will continue to represent a sympathetic form of development that respects and reflects the wider landscape setting.”

But planning officers said in a decision notice that the applicant had not provided an environmental statement to enable the scheme’s likely effects to be assessed against a number of criteria, including amonia emissions on the Dinefwr Estate Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the potential pollution of the River Towy Special Area of Conservation.

The decision notice also said information was lacking about the scheme’s impact on nearby householders in terms of noise, dust and odours.

Mr Davies can appeal the decision.