In a judgment handed down in the Land and Environment Court in Sydney at 4pm Friday, Commissioner Susan Dixon ruled five development applications (DA) by Rostry, Baiada’s property arm, could go ahead with certain conditions.

“A number of mitigation measures are proposed as conditions of consent and I am satisfied that they will ameliorate those impacts to an acceptable level,” she said in her 53-page judgment.

The appeal was lodged challenging the development consent granted by Tamworth Regional Council for the establishment and operation of the five poultry farms on the Strathfield property, about 11km north of Manilla. But the decision has left nearby residents contemplating uprooting their lives and leaving.

Residents along the Namoi River Rd are concerned about the number of B-Double trucks travelling to and from the development, along with the amount of noise they would create.

The farms are proposed to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and under the proposed operations, would see 12 B-double trucks used to transport birds 220 nights per year.

Namoi Community Group president Matthew Fletcher said the poultry industry had been placed in front of the town.

“This is another case of big business placed over people and planet,” Mr Fletcher said. “This development is not a case of solving world hunger, it’s big business making a profit.

“Unfortunately, time will be the judge in regard to environmental and social welfare.”

Each DA includes 14 tunnel-ventilated broiler sheds, housing 588,000 birds on each farm, and collectively, the 70 sheds can accommodate 2.94 million birds at any one time.

Mr Fletcher said improvements to his house and land had been on hold for more than two years because of the fight against the development.

Now, he and many others are seriously considering uprooting their lives and leaving. “If anyone wants a house with a B-Double going past every half hour, there is a ‘for sale’ sign out the front,” Mr Fletcher said.

“People are planning to move their bedrooms to the back of the house just to try to avoid the excess noise.”

Namoi Community Group vice- president Bob Wales said the decision would “destroy our lifestyle out here”.

“I’m going to uproot and go elsewhere,” Mr Wales said.

“I’m not going to tolerate a B-Double going past my house in the middle of the night . I moved out here to get away from that.”

Commissioner Dixon said written objections from residents, as well as 16 locals who gave evidence at the hearing when it sat in Tamworth in October, were considered along with Robert Moore’s – the director of the Woolcott Group that brought about the challenge  objections.

“Generally, the local residents are concerned about the impacts of the farms on the Namoi River and the local water supply, road safety along the haul road, the amenity impacts of B-double trucks at night, truck noise during the day and night, health issues from dust and feathers and general amenity,” she said.

*******

THE Land and Environment Court has ruled significant weight needs to be given to the $82 million broiler farm development’s importance to the viability of the poultry industry.

In a 53-page judgement handed down late Friday in Sydney, Commissioner Susan Dixon gave conditional approval to five development applications (DA), ruling it could go ahead with certain restrictions.

The Woolcott Group lodged the challenge, after it objected to Tamworth Regional Council’s decision to approve five development applications by Rostry, Baiada’s property arm, in July, 2014.

Woolcott director Robert Moore, who grows lucerne for sale as remnant stock feed on the Namoi River Rd, close to where the poultry development was approved, argued the poultry pick-up trucks would cause a feather drop effect. 

Mr Moore submitted feathers from the trucks would “contaminate his lucerne  paddocks and cause significant  economic loss of productive land, future income and sunk investment.

During the hearing last year, he submitted the applications were “fundamentally unsuitable for broiler farms of this scale due to the impacts they will cause”.

The court was told the Tamworth poultry industry presently generates $107 million of annual economic activity and directly employs over 750 people.

Baiada said poultry product demand was increasing and it needed more broiler farms, and with a larger proportion to be sourced within the Tamworth region, with Baiada to ramp up its operations and infrastructure and complete the Oakburn processing plant.

“As this combination of factors is only present in a handful of areas across NSW, this means that the long-term protection and support of the poultry industry in Tamworth is vitally important,” Commissioner Dixon said in her judgement.

“I have decided the available information warrants substantial weight being placed on the development’s ability to satisfy an identified need of general importance to the poultry industry in the region and nationally,” she said.

“In forming that view I am satisfied, on the evidence, that the concerns of the objector and the local residents about odour, road safety, noise, dust, water, ecology, and bio-security are satisfactorily addressed by the conditions of consent proposed by the developer which are supported by the Council.”

Commissioner Dixon ruled the proposed developments were acceptable on their merits and ordered Council to prepare conditions of consent, based on the developer’s proposed conditions and in accordance with her judgement within 14 days, along with an contested conditions.

Finals orders will then be handed down.

Commissioner Dixon said in considering all the factors expressed by local residents, as well as the evidence and planning frameworks, significant weight needed to be given to the development’s importance in the poultry industry.