Legal challenge against Braintree intensive poultry unit

Communities Against Factory Farming (CAFF) claims Braintree Council gave the green light for a new intensive chicken shed at Hubbards Farm, in Shalford, without proper environmental or animal welfare scrutiny.

The plans, which have more than 600 objection comments since February, will demolish an existing poultry building and construct a replacement, along with a new surface water attenuation basin to improve drainage and manage runoff from the site.

Maya Pardo, Legal Coordinator at CAFF, said: "Braintree Council approved a factory farm's expansion plans without knowing what impact it could have on public health, animal welfare and the environment.

Protest - Communities Against Factory Farming protesting outside Braintree District Council at Causeway House last month (Image: Communities Against Factory Farming)

"The council failed to assess the environmental impacts of this expansion, and relied on a parallel permit with wildly different numbers of birds rather than carry out checks for itself.

"The council simply did not know what it was approving, which is deeply irresponsible when the spread of intensive chicken farming is one of the main reasons so many of England's rivers are in such poor health."

The existing facility houses 5,000 birds. Planning documents suggest the new unit could house at least 26,000 birds, but a separate Environment Agency permit application referenced in the challenge states 109,628 chickens could be housed at any one time on the site.

The council did not attach a condition specifying the maximum number of birds to its planning approval.

Challenge - CAFF has launched a legal challenge, which Braintree District Council said it will fight (Image: Communities Against Factory Farming)

CAFF says councillors were also told the new shed was of the same scale as the old one.

They claim a planning officer wrongly stated "the existing arrangement and the number of birds would remain consistent between the existing unit and the proposed unit."

No environmental impact assessment was carried out for the larger possible capacity listed in the permit application, CAFF said.

A spokesman for Braintree Council said: "We are aware of the claim for judicial review regarding the planning permission granted for a replacement poultry building and a new surface water attenuation basin at Hubbards Farm, Shalford which received approval from the Planning Committee on 2 June 2026.

"The council intends to defend the decision taken by the committee.

"As legal proceedings are now active, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage."

The council received notification in July it had been served with the Judicial Review claim by CAFF.