Help Us Stop Cherry Tree Factory Farm.
Cherry Tree Pig Factory Farm in Stow Bedon, Norfolk is causing immense suffering to animals, people and the environment.
Cherry Tree Pig Factory Farm in Stow Bedon, Norfolk is causing immense suffering to animals, people and the environment.
The quickest way is to use our objection generator tool by clicking on the button above, or you can follow the instructions below:
Email your objection to: planning@breckland.gov.uk
* Include BOTH References:
3PL/2021/0932/VAR
3PL/2021/0931/F
* Include date
* Make it clear that you object
* Include why you object to the retrospective planning application
* Include your name and address
* If you have time, tailor your objection so each one submitted is different and less easily dismissed
Personalised and long objections are more impactful, but if you do not have time to write your own then please use our generator tool.
If you could spend a few minutes personalising the first paragraph that would be helpful.
A few years ago, Cranswick applied for planning permission to build one of Europe's largest factory farms in Methwold, Norfolk. This had 15,000 objections and 42,000 petition signatures.
Recently in March 2025, at the planning committee meeting, Kings Lynn council refused the application and it sent a shockwave through the industry. It showed councils, corporations and the public that people are taking action because they don’t want these factory farms and that these factory farms can be stopped.
The 15,000 objections caused the planning portal to crash and put pressure on the council to make the right decision. THE POWER OF OBJECTIONS!
Each factory farm planning application refusal isn’t isolated, it creates public awareness and momentum. It strengthens our case that these factories pose serious risks to public health, the environment, local communities and animal welfare. It builds the pressure to change laws and shut down existing factory farms permanently. It shows that the public will not be silenced and neither will the truth.
When the public sees that factory farming is destroying people’s health and daily lives, destroys the environment and causes suffering to animals, it shines a powerful light on the truth that this industry is not just cruel, it’s a danger to us all.
Cherry Tree Farm in Stow Bedon, Norfolk, is a pig factory farm owned by Cranswick, one of the UK’s largest pig producers, turning over around £1.2 BILLION a year. Cranswick expanded the factory farm in 2021, but it has not been built how it is supposed to have been, breaching planning rules.
Cranswick is now seeking retrospective planning permission from Breckland Council for what they have built without permission, despite 12 environmental permit breaches on this farm alone (they have many more breaches on their other factory farms too) and nearly 500 complaints from the small village in Norfolk to the Environment Agency (EA) about ammonia and odour pollution.
Since Cranswick took over the farm and made the expansions, for four years, the residents have been suffering. Nose bleeds that last for days (having never had a nosebleed before in their life), requiring inhalers with no underlying respiratory issues before 2021 and one resident was told by her GP that pregnancy would be unsafe due to the pollution.
The residents said that when the ammonia plumes come through, it burns their nose and lungs and causes their eyes to stream. It gets into their soft furnishings and they can't just open a window to get rid of it, it lingers there causing their food to taste of pig urine and feces.
An autistic person living in the village experiences sensory overload and becomes trapped inside her own home because of the overwhelming odours when the ammonia plumes come through and intermittent noise of screaming pigs.
When the CAFF team went to visit these local residents we could hear the pigs screaming inside the farm and they are clearly in distress. Some days the screaming is worse than others and it can be intermittent.
Also, a resident has experienced some of their trees in their garden dying, skin issues with their dogs (the ammonia gets trapped in the dogs fur coats), with one dog dying from a very rare cancer. One person told us that they used to be able to swim in their pond, as we stood next to it, watching it practically bubbling with swampy brown and green algae.
Diseased pigs were buried on top of a drinking water aquifier in the 1990's and the farm is just 800m from a drinking water safeguard zone, yet no groundwater risk assessment was taken to ensure that the pig burial from the 1990s, which is near the farm's water soakaway, would not lead to water contamination. Bodies take 100 years to decompose. Residents are rightly concerned about drinking water contamination.
In simple terms, Cranswick are asking Breckland council to approve what they built without permission.
If approved, this application sets a dangerous precedent, rewarding a major corporation for bypassing regulations, harming local health and subjecting animals to extreme suffering.
If rejected, Cranswick will be forced to dismantle what they built without permission, they will have to re submit a new application from ground zero with all new reports, but the critical load is already exceeded so it will be very difficult for them to be approved for a new application, and it sends a powerful message that factory farms cannot act with impunity.
The recent rejection of Cranswick’s proposed mega-farm in Methwold, driven by 15,000 public objections and 42,000 peition signatures, proved that collective resistance works. A win at Cherry Tree could trigger a domino effect to challenge factory farming nationwide.
The planning committee meeting is on the 19th May at Elizabeth house in Dereham at 2pm. Please show your support and attend the meeting.
Council risks 'maladministration' in Stow Bedon pig farm row - BBC News
Stow Bedon villagers fear 'smelly farm' application errors | Thetford & Brandon Times
The Mysterious World of Cherry Tree Farm - Real Media - The View From Below
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