Hundreds of objections to Market Drayton poultry units

Hundreds of objections have flooded in from animal welfare campaigners across Britain opposing plans for six poultry units have been made – but they won't affect the final decision.

Planning officers at Shropshire Council have been bombarded with objections to plans for broiler units housing more than 300,000 chickens at Vantage Farm, Bletchley, near Market Drayton.

Many have come in the form of identical e-mails from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

But Karen Townend, a planning officer at Shirehall, said most of the e-mails would not be taken into consideration as they referred more to the idea of intensively farming chickens rather than the specific plan.

About 30 people have signed an online government petition against the plans and almost 200 comments have been made on the council's planning website.

Mrs Townend said: "The objections are more about the business of keeping chickens in intensive farming. We have received a couple of hundred already.

"If people want to object it should be based on the planning application submitted and material planning considerations, they are not raising objections about the plans themselves.

"I can only take into account planning matters, factory farming isn't illegal in planning terms so I can't refuse it because of that."

Farm owners Michaela and Mike Harrison said the proposals would create three jobs and help produce more than 5,000 tonnes of meat a year.