Council Faces Court over ‘Deeply Irresponsible’ Approval of Factory Farm Expansion in Essex
A legal challenge has been brought against Braintree District Council over its decision to approve the expansion of an intensive poultry unit (IPU) without sufficient environmental and animal welfare scrutiny.
Hubbards Farm was granted permission to build a new intensive chicken shed in June 2026, despite the application containing conflicting information on the number of birds that will be confined. [1]
Communities Against Factory Farming (CAFF) is bringing the case to support local residents fighting against the expansion.
Braintree District Council failed to consider the full scale of air pollution and waste impacts, as well as failing to address other material planning considerations, when it approved a factory farm's expansion in June, a legal challenge alleges.
According to some application documents, the current 5,000-bird farm would be replaced by an intensive unit containing at least 26,000 birds.
Communities Against Factory Farming (CAFF) also found a parallel Environment Agency (EA) permit application that states 109,628 chickens could be housed at any one time on the site. [2]
Yet, despite these conflicting bird numbers Braintree District Council approved the plans without being certain of the number of birds that will be kept, and without adding any condition to the decision.
Councillors were also told that the new shed was of the same scale as the old one, with the Planning Officer stating wrongly that "the existing arrangement and the number of birds would remain consistent between the existing unit and the proposed unit." [3]
The EA permit for 109,628 birds is especially concerning because a development of that size would require a full environmental impact assessment of the site’s waste, odour, ammonia and cumulative impacts, which was not done.
At the planning meeting, councillors also used the EA permit as evidence that the environmental effects had already been considered, which risked climate and waste impacts being overlooked.
Maya Pardo, Legal Coordinator at CAFF, said:
“Braintree District Council approved a factory farm’s expansion plans without knowing what impact it could have on public health, animal welfare and the environment. 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.”
CAFF is raising funds to cover legal costs. [4]
ENDS
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Communities Against Factory Farming (CAFF) works with residents across the UK to review planning applications for intensive farms and submit strong, evidence‑based planning objections. The organisation has helped communities block and overturn multiple intensive poultry unit applications when councils overlooked key environmental and animal‑welfare issues.
Images of CAFF's protest against the development here: https://show.pics.io/hubbards-farm-protest
All images in this file, on our social media, and on our website can be used with credit to Communities Against Factory Farming under ‘fair use’ for the purposes of reporting.
For more information or further comments, please contact:
Daniel (Press Back Office), press@caff.org.uk
Notes to Editors
[2] https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/psc/cm7-5az-gst-limited-epr-jp3228lq-a001/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-o5atLp9sc, from 33:34
[4] https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stop-factory-farm-expansion-essex/