A planning application that would have quadrupled the number of birds in a factory farm in Great Hockham, Norfolk, has been withdrawn following strong local opposition. [1]
At Brookside Farm, meat industry giant Hook 2 Sisters (now Boparan) started demolishing buildings and put up six new sheds in March 2025 without applying for planning permission. Thanks to pressure from local residents, the council issued a Temporary Stop Notice in August 2025, halting construction. [2]
Since then, the plans to expand from 106,000 turkeys to 434,000 chickens had been under consideration by Breckland Council.
In a new twist, Boparan has now withdrawn its application. The withdrawal of the expansion plans is a relief to residents who have endured decades living besides this factory farm and years of uncertainty as the buildings were constructed without permission.
Rhian Pilkington, who lives near Brookside Farm, said:
“The proposed scale of this development and likely detrimental impact on local residents and the adjacent Specially Protected Area and Site of Special Scientific Interest means that I am exceedingly relieved that the planning has been withdrawn.
“I appreciate that chicken production on this scale can potentially be lucrative but question that this should ever be valued above people’s health and that of the biodiverse wildlife inhabiting the adjacent Frosts Common SSSI.”
Locals have now written to Breckland Council asking them to enforce the removal of the six new buildings that were put up without permission last year.
Building without planning permission then asking for retrospective planning once the structures are already in place is a tactic that has been used by industrial meat giants before. Cranswick employed this technique in expanding its mega pig farm at Cherry Tree in Stow Bedon, Norfolk, a sight that has led to hundreds of complaints. [3] Boparan (formerly Hook 2 Sisters) are also applying for retrospective planning permission for 12 poultry sheds at Locks Farm in Haveringland, Norfolk, a site which is already causing a nuisance to residents who complain of repugnant odours, air pollution, flies, and noise. [4]
In Great Hockham, residents raised objections that Brookside Farm would emit significant ammonia pollution onto the Norfolk Valley Fens Special Area of Conservation, a rare and protected wetland.
The Fens are home to rare and protected species and a number of marginal fens around pingos – pools that formed in hollows left when large blocks of ice melted at the end of the last Ice Age. [5]
The expanded intensive chicken unit would have raised more than 3 million chickens a year in cramped factory farm conditions.
Maya Pardo, Director of Communities Against Factory Farming, said:
“Stopping this destructive factory farm is a major win for the local community, which has endured so much stress for Boparan’s’ corporate greed.
“Frankenchickens trapped inside factory farms never see daylight, cannot spread their wings and suffer a huge amount of physical and mental pain for the entirety of their short lives. As government reports have shown, intensive chicken farming is a threat to national security, with the reliance it creates on imported feed from South America.”
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.
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For information or further comments, please contact:
Daniel (Press Back Office), press@caff.org.uk
Notes for Editors:
[1] https://publicportal.breckland.gov.uk/planning/index.html?fa=getApplication&id=198618
[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crevy7zrxg3o
[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2gm85xd23o
[4] https://info.southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=T3P7PJOQHZ100 Ref: 2025/3119 South Norfolk and Broadland
District councillor comment 3 September 2026
Old school comment 3 Nov 2025