Reversal of Devon Intensive Dairy Farm Planning Permission Celebrated by Locals
Catherine Cannon (left) out leafleting with other locals to raise awareness
Following the issuing of a judicial review claim by Communities Against Factory Farming (CAFF), East Devon District Council have conceded that permission for an intensive livestock shed at Northcombe Farm, Offwell, Devon was granted unlawfully and should be quashed. [1]
The building was going to house 200 calves to be reared for a nearby dairy farm.
This is the latest of several intensive farm permissions to be quashed this year following legal challenges, after plans for an intensive poultry unit on the Shropshire border were overturned last month. [2]
The planning application was initially granted despite over 700 objections.
On 30/1/26, East Devon District Council formally announced that it had withdrawn planning permission following a legal challenge from Communities Against Factory Farming (CAFF). [3] Despite locals campaigning against the planning application and hundreds of people lodged formal objections, permission for an intensive dairy shed in Offwell was granted on 2/10/25. CAFF sent a pre-action protocol letter on 29/10/25 after the Council refused to require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The Council initially maintained its decision, with CAFF forced to issue proceedings in the High Court.
Permission for the application at Northcombe Farm, in Devon, was granted on the basis that the new livestock shed would replace an existing poultry shed and therefore would amount to environmental betterment. The applicant argued that the nutrient (manure) and greenhouse gas impacts of livestock were lesser than the impacts of poultry. However, in granting permission the Council failed to ask itself whether the existing poultry shed remained in use and, if so, how likely that use was to continue. The Council therefore erred in its approach to the baseline position for the purposes of both Environmental Impact Assessment and planning fall back.
This is the third intensive animal farm approval that CAFF has overturned in the last year, following successful judicial reviews of planning approvals of intensive chicken farms in North Norfolk and Newcastle Under Lyme. [4] [5]
Catherine Cannon, 48, a teacher from Exeter, said:
“I am so pleased that East Devon District Council overturned their permission for this intensive dairy facility. As Professor Paul Behrens pointed out in the food security section of the National Emergency Briefing last month; we must shift to healthy, plant-rich diets and make our farming methods more resilient. Expanding intensive animal agriculture is completely the wrong direction of travel. But it shouldn’t take community campaigns and legal threats for councils to do the right thing, they should be the ones leading the way. In the UK we urgently need clean rivers, clean air, reduced emissions, and a huge increase in wildlife numbers. I am extremely grateful for the support from Communities Against Factory Farming; this victory is significant, but it can’t be the last.”
Maya Pardo, Legal Strategy Coordinator at CAFF, said:
“The realities of modern dairy production are exceptional animal suffering and significant amounts of pollution: methane that warms the climate, ammonia that harms wildlife and locals, and manure that runs off into rivers. Yet these impacts are repeatedly overlooked in planning decisions. Residents are left feeling unheard and the environmental burden keeps growing. Communities Against Factory Farming will keep bringing these challenges to ensure that the true costs of intensive farming are no longer ignored, that communities finally get the protection and transparency they deserve, and that councils properly consider animal welfare.”
Alex Shattock represented CAFF, instructed by Matthew McFeeley and Katherine Wood at Richard Buxton Solicitors.
Matthew McFeeley, Partner at Richard Buxton Solicitors, said:
“We are pleased to have helped achieve this result for CAFF. CAFF raised a number of grounds going to the heart of the decision-making process and the Council now accepts that it did not lawfully consider the additional impacts that would arise from granting permission. It underlines the need for planning decision-makers to test the evidence with care and not to rely on unevidenced assumptions about a lack of impacts of such proposals.”
Experts have been highlighting the significant negative impacts of the meat and dairy industries on emissions and biodiversity for many years, with councils now starting to take notice. Foodrise released a scathing report last year, Roasting the Earth - Big Meat and Big Dairy’s Big Emissions, with analysis that “shows Big Meat and Dairy’s colossal, yet often overlooked, climate footprint makes it one of the world’s highest-emitting sectors”. [6]
Earlier this month, a long-awaited national security assessment on Global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security was finally released by the UK government. It highlighted serious issues including that “food production is the most significant cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss” and that “the UK is unable to be food self-sufficient at present, based on current diets and prices”. [7]
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Notes To Editors:
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[1] Planning Application 25/1569/MFUL
https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=T02FN1GHLBH00
[3] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s5yGfBE9rE1zG8iR8b8_DSsn0rnGVELn/view?usp=drive_link
[4] Willoughbridge Farm Planning Decision overturned https://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/planning/401-planning-news/99181-poultry-farm-approval-to-be-reversed-after-council-concedes-over-judicial-review-threat
[5] Edgfield Farm Planning Decision Quashed https://www.leighday.co.uk/news/news/2025-news/plans-for-giant-intensive-poultry-unit-in-norfolk-overturned/
[6] https://foodrise.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Roasting-The-Planet-Report-FINAL-16_10_25.pdf