Acland Bryant of the Garden Court Environmental Law & Climate Justice Team acted for the successful claimant, Coalition Against Factory Farming (CAFF), instructed by Matthew McFeeley at Richard Buxton Solicitors
Planning permission for two poultry houses producing over 500,000 broiler chickens a year has been overturned after campaign group CAFF began legal proceedings to contest the decision.
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has now agreed that its decision of 9 October 2025 to grant planning permission for the poultry houses and associated infrastructure was unlawful.
CAFF’s campaign and legal challenge raised concerns over regard for animal welfare in the planning application and breaches of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations in the council’s assessment of the environmental impacts.
Following a Pre Action Protocol letter, the council conceded that the decision should be quashed. Planning permission for the intensive poultry unit is now set to be quashed by the High Court.
In summary, the proposed grounds for CAFF’s claim were that:
- The EIA screening was unlawful because it was incomplete, unpublished, and failed to properly assess cumulative and downstream environmental impacts.
- The Planning Officer misrepresented water abstraction concerns, wrongly advised that wider impacts couldn’t be considered, and applied the wrong test for sustainability.
- A councillor mistakenly believed animal welfare could not be taken into account.
The Environmental Law Foundation said:
“Environmental Law Foundation was delighted to be a part of this case and hope it serves as a reminder to LPAs that failure to adequately scrutinise the impacts of these major farming developments will leave them open to legal challenge.”
Maya Pardo, legal strategy coordinator at CAFF, said:
“We are so pleased that the council has acknowledged its decision couldn’t lawfully stand. Councils have full discretion to consider animal welfare — and it’s time they used it.
CAFF was originally supported in the case by the Environmental Law Foundation.
