Resident claims that poultry farm plan will leave a fowl smell

The smell of manure from a proposed North Galway poultry farm is one reason why planning permission for the development should be overturned.

That’s the view of one local resident after Galway County Council granted permission for the provision of the free range poultry house at Cloghans Hill, Tuam subject to 19 conditions being complied with.

The application was submitted by Padraic Dunleavy who wants to build a poultry house to accommodate 6,000 organic free range egg laying birds. The range of the birds will extend to the lands immediately surrounding the application site.

In his submission to Galway County Council, he said that the poultry farm will operate as a layer house for the production of eggs with the birds moving in at approximately 16 weeks and moving out at the end of lay around 56 to 60 weeks later.

But an appeal has been lodged to An Bord Pleanala by local resident Kevin Murphy from Blindwell, Cloghan’s Hill, who says that the access road to the development is not a public road, but one that is maintained by people living in the area.

He said that planners had not put in a condition for the ongoing maintenance of this road which will experience increased use as a direct result of the proposed poultry farm.

In his submission to Bord Pleanala, he claims locals use the road for walking, hunting, bird watching and agricultural access to properties. It is argued that the current application will intensify the use of this road to the applicant’s property.

“The increased commercial use of the local road by the applicant will result in a greater need for maintenance of the road on an annual basis.

“The applicant has no proposals for maintaining the road and without this, the road will deteriorate quickly and will no longer be fit for use by cars or walkers,” said the appeal.

An Bord Pleanala has also been told there is a stench from poultry manure even during the simple operation of loading, spreading and the cleaning of houses. It is suggested that windows will have to be closed to keep out the smell.

In response, Mr Dunleavy said that he had previously used poultry manure on his lands and argued the road is already in use for heavy goods vehicles.

He said that as he would be generating his own manure, it would no longer require the traffic associated with transporting manure to his farm.

A decision on the appeal is due at the end of March.