Feed farm fined over fly infestation

Council bosses today welcomed the fining of a poultry farm which admitted responsibility for a plague of flies in Shropshire.

Lloyds Animal Feeds was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,664, as well as a £15 victim surcharge at Shrewsbury Magistrates Court yesterday, after admitting breaching an abatement notice at its Stoke Heath site.

District Judge Bruce Morgan heard homes near the battery hen farm at Sandy Lane, Stoke Heath, near Market Drayton, had been overrun with house flies last summer.

He was told some residents had reported more than 100 insects in their kitchens and the local primary school also found hundreds of flies in the building, with more than 20 in each classroom.

Lloyds admitted breaching a North Shropshire District Council abatement notice relating to maintenance of its farm, which led to the flies breeding out of control.

Miss Sarah Clover, prosecuting, said Lloyds had been given a notice telling it what steps to take to keep flies under control, but had not followed the instructions.

Mr David Travers, for the company, said it had been operating for 20 years with no previous breaches of notices.

Lloyds keeps 150,000 chickens in five sheds on the site, which are thoroughly cleaned out twice a year, he said.

Sentencing, District Judge Morgan said: "Here there has been a mass production of flies and I appreciate the extent one has to go to to control them, but I ask those who run this farm to imagine 100 flies in their kitchen and how distressing it must be.

"It wasn't a deliberate act on their part to produce the flies, but it was ineptness. The world is full of pests but one of the most loathed is flies."

Today, Councillor Keith Newby, council portfolio holder for the natural environment, thanked the residents of Stoke on Tern for their help supporting the council's inquiries.

Councillor Newby said the council would take action against any company that fails to follow best practices.

By Deborah Collins