Maesbury Marsh is a village near the end of the open section of the Montgomery
Canal. It is in the country and the canal section is an SSSI - or so we
thought...
A few years ago a lorry driving chap brought 25 acres of land right next to the
village and near the Canal Central Post Office. The land had no house but a
barn and some sheds - the farm house being sold off years ago.
Shortly after buying the land the owner first (illegally) lived in a caravan on
the land and then, in an area where permissions are rarely given, was given
permission to turn the barn into a house. After this another planning
application went in for a new barn and, in spite of local opposition, the
council officers and certain influential councillors bent over backwards to
push the application through.
After the barn went up it quickly became clear that it was not for the few
cattle in the fields but for an intensive calf rearing operation. This involves
food being lorried in and muck being stored on site (400metres upwind of the
village) then lorried away along the road. The road is single track and
extremely narrow with twists. It is mainly used by walkers and cyclists (though
according to the county council it is used only by lorries and few of them).
The road crosses the canal near Canal Central PO on a bridge limited to 10 tons
- though loads of muck similar to the one that broke the bridge near Stenson
been seen to go over this bridge - a twin to the Stenson one. However most of
the lorries go the other way along the lane through a ford and over that
massive bridge created in the restoration by Peate's mill. (Be careful here and
up the lane walking, visiting folks!) Although an estimate by the applicant
implied 2 lorries a week plus others (?) a two day few hour count saw 14 cross
the bridge - and that was before the latest application...
This latest application is for another shed for calf rearing. This shed could
take 600 though the application implies only 150 on top of the 200 currently
indoors on site. As before certain councillors (now backed by farmers mostly
not local) tried to bulldoze the application through while the council officers
(one of who advised on the application but is not the one set to approve it)
approved it in the face of local opposition. In fact some councillors (at least
one of which received calls to drop it) are now annoyed enough oppose the
application and to have forced a environmental assessment to be carried out. (A
thing the council officers maintain is needed for siting a caravan but not for
cattle rearing with muck per hundred cattle piling up at 4 tons per day. (A
read of the www.factoryfarming.org
site will tell you about the environmental implications of this!))
In the midst of this lot it was pointed out that the canal corridor along here
is an SSSI and surely that should count for something. Well locals have always
thought it was an SSSI and any WRGies out there may remember that when they
restored Aston locks in the 1990s BW chained them up and used the threat of
permanent refusal for future restoration by English Nature who had made the
canal below an SSSI as one of their clubs to beat the restorers into compliance.
When the SSSI status was raised the powers that be found that the Maesbury bit
was made a a rare plant etc., SSSI in the 1990s BUT in 2001 - when a BW eco
restoration was begun at massive cost on the Maesbury section English Nature
waved a magic wand, all the rare plants disappeared and the SSSI status was
rescinded as far as Redwith. So - when is an SSSI not an SSSI - when English
Nature (now Natural England) say so. And, in this case it was on/off
at convenient times for certain parties... It seems not only our councillors
perform cartwheels when it suits them.
So now you know - and if you fancy a bit of factory farming now you also know
how to go about it - from field to house to barn to bigger barn - and there is
plenty of room for expansion yet in those 25 acres.
Incidentally the farm guy keeps his barns and land around flood-lite all night.
Maybe he is worried that those men in hoods will arrive and free his beasts -
or maybe he just likes annoying his neighbours. (Final note for visiting
boaters - he has been reported to the police for driving at people as he seems
to think the local lane is his road private so watch out!)
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