Please find below News and Meetings regarding Crown Chicken for residents information.
As the planning website is very confusing at present regarding consultation dates, the Parish Council requested confirmation from Mid-Suffolk and would like to confirm that the consultation expiry date for everyone to send in their comments, for or against, has been extended to the 7th May. This is due to the Coronavirus and present lockdown.
The Parish Council alerts residents to the amended outline planning application for Crown Farm and the need for them to comment on this revised application by 30 March 2020. This is a new revised outline planning application and previous comments will not be taken into account.
The reference number of the application is DC/17/06326
Proposal: Amended Outline Planning Application. Demolition of existing buildings and construction of residential development (80 dwellings) and ‘Business/Employment’ uses (10,000sq.ft), public open space, drainage infrastructure, and vehicular access.
Location: Crown Farm, The Street, Weybread, IP21 5TP
Deadline: The deadline for comments is 30 March 2020.
You can make comments, track this application and view important dates by visiting https://planning.baberghmidsuffolk.gov.uk/online-applications/
If you wish to send comments in writing they should be sent to the District Council address below quoting the application number DC/17/06326.
Below is a copy of letter delivered to Weybread residents on Saturday 28th March.
Weybread Parish Council
Crown/Cranswick’s Outline Planning Application
Before the Crown Chicken site was closed and moved to Eye, we as a Parish were asked to consider a planning application for 110 houses or the sale of the site to another Chicken producer. The Parish Council asked for the opinions of everyone living in Weybread, both verbally and in writing, and we received many suggestions which covered every possible scenario – some in direct conflict with each other.
As the Parish Council’s remit is to represent the Parish as a whole, the only position that we could take was to support the majority view:-
1/ Only one or two preferred to keep a factory to having houses
2/ 110 houses was too many – the consensus was for a maximum of around 60 houses
3/ A community building of some form with community land attached in any development
4/ To be aware of the lack of community infrastructure, ie. Schools and GP surgeries
The Parish Council has worked hard over the last two years, and continues to do so, to achieve the best outcome for Weybread in line with the majority view – houses instead of another chicken factory. Weybread was seen by Mid Suffolk District Council, who will make the decision on the application, as countryside and therefore would have no development; in fact the favoured view of the decision makers was to keep the site as a chicken factory.
We spoke with the head teacher of Fressingfield School who explained that they had room for and needed a growth in pupil numbers to sustain the school into the future. Harleston Medical Practice assured us that they had room for growth. We are unsure of the present position of Fressingfield Medical Practice.
All negotiations need some form of compromise. The position the PC took was to increase our preferred maximum number of houses to 80 (a reduction in their requirement of 110), to create a site which is rural in nature, has a good mix of size & design and less compact. The whole site needs to be open and welcoming to the rest of the village and create a village centre with a village green.
A record of the discussions of a conference call on Monday 23rd March 2020 between Mid-Suffolk Planning, Cranswick (owners), the District Councillor and two representatives of the Parish Council can be found on the Weybread website at Weybread.com http://weybread.com/paris-council/council-minutes/or on the two notice boards. The key points of discussion were:-
1/ the consultation process due to the effects of the Coronavirus
2/ the key changes of this revised outline planning permission
3/ the overarching aim of the proposal
4/ our query on the surface water drainage
5/ our query on the site of the affordable housing – Weybread’s needs first
6/ our query on the piece of employment land – definitely B1
7/ our query on the spatial relationship with the rest of the village – move some front houses
8/ our query on community facilities and assets – Gym trail and gifted land
9/ our query on the accessibility of the footpaths – being looked at
10/ our query on the future of the Crown & Rose and Holme Cottages – to be sold
11/ our insistence that the timetable is extended for the engagement in the decision-making process due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
There is a further conference call planned in three weeks time and no decisions will be made before the outcome of this call is discussed.
The full planning application can be found on the Mid-Suffolk Planning website –
DC/17/06326
However, as two years have passed since we asked you and your household as residents of Weybread for your views on this important decision, may we request a moment of your time to please consider the following questions? We also apologise that we can’t call a special meeting to discuss this in person due to the Coronavirus and every adult in the household who usually resides in Weybread may vote.
I am in favour of this outline planning application YES NO
I am in favour of this site being sold to another
chicken/meat producer or for other industrial use YES NO
I cannot make up my mind YES
Due to these difficult times with the Coronavirus, Please would you either email your answers along with your house name or number to grahamofthepaddocks@talktalk.net or send a text to 07717 756783. Anonymous answers will not be counted and all adults who normally reside in Weybread are eligible to vote.
We need to receive your answers by Friday April 10th 2020 please
We would also like to point out that you can make a comment supporting or objecting to this planning application by writing to Mr Vincent Pearce at :-
Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils
Endeavour House
8 Russell Road
Ipswich IP1 2BX
or by going online to mid-suffolk planning and choose application search and comment.
Thank you
- Gibbs
Mr Graham Gibbs
Chairman of Weybread Parish Council
Environmental and Residents Meeting Minutes
17th September 2019
Ben Carrigan BC General Site Manager
Scott Temprell ST HSE Manager
Mark Twinn MT Operations Manager Apologies received – HOLIDAY
Stacey Tapsell ST Environment Agency Apologies received
Deborah Caron DC HSE Assistant
Janet Blair JB Resident & Parish Councillor
Ann Pickess AP Orchard House Camping Park
Steve Pickess SP Orchard House Camping Park
Janet Morgan JM Weybread Resident
Paul Fisher PF Weybread Resident
Pat Tibenham PT Weybread Resident
Frances Britain FB Weybread Resident
NO OUTSTANDING ACTIONS SINCE LAST MEETING
Apologies from Mark Twinn due to Holiday.
Apologies from Stacey due to other meetings.
What have we done since we last met?
Continued briefing to our investigation team for our Odour/Noise monitoring program. All reports have been dealt with thoroughly in a timely manner.
Extended our fence in height and width at the boundary
Trialing a second odour control on sludge collection
Extra work sealing our lairage
2 unannounced EA visits
NEWS:
Our last process on site will be 2nd – 4th November 2019.
We had 22 incidents since last meeting:
10 x direct to the Environmental Agency.
12x direct to our site.
From the 13x Odour reports 2x were from an identifiable source remedial actions taken.
There were 9x noise reports and 2x sources were identified.
NEW SITE UPDATE
Ben confirmed that we will finish processing on 2nd November 2019. Weybread site will stay functional until the end of January.
RESIDENTS COMMENTS
Please continue to let us know through Security if you have any issues as we are committed to our Odour/Noise management program.
AOB:
Paul Fisher raised some additional points and our actions are below:
1 We will address the times of the changeover of the offal trailer in line with our production schedules.
2 Ben has spoken with MRCT about lorry’s speeding through village and when leaving our site.
3 The Pub area will be weeded and kept tidy.
With no further matters, the meeting was closed with a note of Special thanks from our General Manager Ben Carrigan.
Ben thanked all the residents who over the years have supported our meetings and have in turn invited us to be a part of the Parish and involved on occasions at the Parish meetings.
Environmental and Residents Meeting Minutes
9th July 2019
Members Attending
Ben Carrigan BC General Site Manager
Scott Temprell ST HSE Manager
Mark Twinn MT Operations Manager Apologies received
Stacey Tapsell ST Environment Agency
Deborah Caron DC HSE Assistant Apologies received
Janet Blair JB Resident & Parish Councillor
Ann Pickess AP Orchard House Camping Park
Steve Pickess SP Orchard House Camping Park
Janet Morgan JM Weybread Resident
Paul Fisher PF Weybread Resident Apologies received
NO OUTSTANDING ACTIONS SINCE LAST MEETING
Apologies from Mark Twinn due to prior meetings.
What have we done since we last met?
Extra Security Relief Guard now in training.
Fire Marshalls trained.
One Defib on site now, as have sent the other one to the Eye site but the on here is still available for Parish use.
NEWS:
Our last process on site will be 2nd – 4th November 2019.
We will be carrying out the Acoustic fence monitoring twice a week, in addition to our twice daily noise/odour monitoring.
We had three incidents since last meeting:
31st May – Noise like a fridge motor, Cranswick trailer turned off.
20th June – Entrance to site on roadway, too many cigarette butts. Reported directly to Security. Investigated, but found hard to identify the source as it was on the road.
4th July – Odour. Received email but not through our procedure at Security. Difficult to then identify and investigate as time as elapsed from the original odour detection for the week.
NEW SITE UPDATE
Staff visits to the new site are underway on a regular basis
Please continue to let us know through Security if you have any issues as we are committed to our Odour/Noise management program.
With no further matters, the meeting was closed with the date of the next meeting to be:
Tuesday 17th September 2019 12 noon
Environmental and Residents Meeting Minutes 14th May 2019
Ben Carrigan BC General Site Manager
Scott Temprell ST HSE Manager
Mark Twinn MT Operations Manager
Stacey Tapsell ST Environment Agency
Deborah Caron DC HSE Assistant
Janet Blair JB Resident & Parish Councillor
Ann Pickess AP Orchard House Camping Park
Steve Pickess SP Orchard House Camping Park
Janet Morgan JM Weybread Resident
Paul Fisher PF Weybread Resident
NO OUTSTANDING ACTIONS SINCE LAST MEETING
Apologies from Stacey Tapsell due to prior meetings.
What have we done since we last met?
Since we last met, we have appointed a fourth full time Security Guard covering permanent shifts with eight in total trained in Incident reporting.
The Fire Alarm weekly test is now conducted on a Monday morning at 10am.
For Parish information we have two Defibrillators on site and if required by the residents/ambulance in an emergency, please contact our Security for availability.
Our Engineer and Scott Temprell the H&S manager visited the Parish Hall to assist with the installation of the glass dishwasher donated from our site.
We had three incidents so far this month:
8th May – Fan noise reported. Thoroughly investigated, no conclusive root cause identified.
9th May – Email received concerning an odour detected. After investigation, due to an unusual situation the matter was resolved.
11th May – Direct call reporting a roar of an engine. Again after investigation a lorry that had a fault was switched off.
Going forward we will be carrying out the Acoustic fence monitoring twice a week, in addition to our twice daily noise/odour monitoring.
NEW SITE UPDATE
As a business we are still aiming to leave Weybread by 1st November and all production will cease over that weekend. There will continue to be some de commissioning at this site, but there will be limited traffic movement.
We will start production at our new site in Eye from 4th November.
Planned over the next months are many staff visits to the new site.
Currently we have a newly appointed MD Barry Lock who is looking after the Watton site and Weybread.
Please continue to let us know through Security if you have any issues as we are committed to our Odour/Noise management program.
With no further matters, the meeting was closed with the date of the next meeting to be:
Tuesday 9th July 2019 12 noon
Environmental and Residents Meeting Minutes 12th March 2019
Members Attending
Ben Carrigan – BC General Site Manager Apologies received
Scott Temprell – ST HSE Manager
Mark Twinn – MT Operations Manager
Stacey Tapsell – ST Environment Agency
Deborah Caron – DC HSE Assistant
Janet Blair – JB Resident & Parish Councillor
Ann Pickess – AP Orchard House Camping Park
Steve Pickess – SP Orchard House Camping Park
Janet Morgan – JM Weybread Resident
Graham Tibbenham – GT Weybread Resident
Patricia Tibbenham – PT Weybread Resident
NO OUTSTANDING ACTIONS SINCE LAST MEETING
What have we done since we last met?
Since November we have had an environmental noise survey carried out.
As a result of that we have installed an Acoustic barrier on the fence around the perimeter on the footpath side of the site.
There has been a noticeable reduction in our environmental daily readings.
Our Table Topper monthly topic in getting ready for Spring has been around the theme of saving water, not using plastics and reducing noise.
NEW SITE UPDATE
Mark Twinn confirmed that all our plans are on schedule. We are on target for moving to Eye in November and we are working towards our target exit dates.
A question raised was if we would be running two sites?
Mark confirmed that our intention is to exit Weybread site completely and not run two sites.
Concerns from those at the meeting were voiced as to the future of the Weybread site. Scott Temprell explained that at this stage we don’t know who will be taking ownership of the site, but if sold as a going concern the new owners would take responsibility for all the compliance.conditions
Stacey Tapsell concurred and supported the fact that the new owners if this was to be the case would be responsible for the site permit.
INCIDENTS:
AOB:
An additional concern asked was if another factory could be run on the Weybread site.
Mark and Scott both explained that it could, as it was already and operational site with planning and compliant permits.
Stacey commented As Cranswick have been so pro-active whilst still here implementing best available techniques as far as she was aware the residents were happy with what has been accomplished.
Mark Twinn noted that we have reduced the number of people at night with less traffic accumulating with the new 6-6 shift. Scott Temprell advised that he would be carrying out investigations at night in the coming weeks.
Stacey requested that all weather conditions on any investigations are noted, as accurate reporting is necessary to complete a bigger picture.
Please continue to let us know through Security if you have any issues as we are committed to our Odour/Noise management program.
With no further matters, the meeting was closed with the date of the next meeting to be:
Tuesday 14th May 2019 at 12 noon
Environmental and Residents Meeting Minutes 4th September 2018
Members Attending
Ben Carrigan – General Site Manager Scott Temprell – H&SE Officer
Stacey Tapsell – Environment Agency Deborah Caron – H&SE Assistant
Janet Blair – Resident/ Parish Councillor Ann Pickess – Orchard House Camping Park
Steve Pickess – Orchard House Camping Park Scott Vincent – Resident
Sally Mitchell – Resident
ACTIONS SINCE LAST MEETING
Odour :-
Our second sludge removal is now in place.
The Effluent plane roof and sides has now been completed.
13 x Improvement points listed, 9 x have been done.
Our odour/noise monitoring daily schedule now includes the point of Mill Lane, capturing additional information.
Scott Temprell said that since the last meeting we have had 7 incidents reported, one an internal issue.
One incident in July was a noise report, in August due to extreme weather conditions we did start our processes an hour early. However, we will always notify you and the agency of any changes to our normal operation times.
Stacey presented to members our Environmental powerpoint slides of our very successful Environmental Week, working collaboratively with our employees as part of out sustainability Second Nature strategy.
By 1st October we will only be buying 100% electricity from a renewable source.
Ben informed the meeting that we are on track with the new site at Eye for completion by the end of 2019. The security hut is up and the foundations are going down.
Stacey explained that although she had registered noise on her last visit, any actions raised by her reports are being dealt with in a timely fashion by Cranswick/Crown.
Stacey encouraged all to report any issues with as much detail as possible at the time of residents noticing anything.
With no further matters the meeting was closed with the date of the next meeting.
Tuesday 13th November 2018 at 12 noon.
Environmental and Residents Meeting Minutes 20th March 2018
Members Attending
Ben Carrigan – General Site Manager Scott Temprell – H&SE Officer
Stacey Tapsell – Environment Agency Deborah Caron – H&SE Assistant
Janet Blair – Resident Ann Pickess – Orchard House Camping Park
Scott opened the meeting with introductions to everyone present and welcomed new faces to the team.
He outlined the Agenda for the afternoon noting the first part was to update the Residents on what Crown had been implementing to improve control and monitoring of Environmental issues particular to the Weybread site.
Ben clarified that planning permission was going ahead with regard to our new site location in Eye and any issues had been resolved.
Janet noted to the group that just before the bad weather in March, she had detected a rather bad odour.
Scott informed the group that we have trained 6 different people in Odour and Noise Management monitoring. This is carried out twice a day on a new record form collating data so we can quickly resolve any concerns raised from this on the day.In addition we have trained 7 Managers in carrying out Investigations into any incidents or concerns raised either directly to us or indirectly through the Environment Agency. The Night shift Manager is included in this training.
Please use this number: 01379-586444 to contact the site. This will then be forwarded to one of our Investigators who will look into the matter fully and report back to us and Stacey Tapsell quoting the reference of the incident.
Janet raised concerns over lorry’s running their engines the week before last.
Scott and Ben asked Janet and residents to please get in touch straight away if this happens so that we can investigate thoroughly.
Scott confirmed that he has been in touch with MRCT and will write to them to notify them if one of their trailers is noisy quoting the lorry’s number. He also has asked them to make regular maintenance checks on them.
The temperature on the trailers is being monitored every 2hrs and Ben confirmed that as soon as they have finished the process the trailers are switched over to electric.
Scott assured the group that since last August he has been monitoring the trends for Odour management.
Janet voiced that things had improved recently.
Confirming this Scott also added that Odour, Noise and litter management had tightened up and was being monitored.
Ben and Scott offered our assistance to the village on their next ‘village litter pick up’ operation.
Ben also added that when the village fete is arranged to let him know as he would like to contribute some chicken.
Also, he extended the offer to buy from our shop to the campers.
Please note shift changes:
6am – IN 3pm – IN and OUT 11pm – OUT
With no further matters, the meeting was closed with the date of the next meeting to be:
Tuesday 22nd May 2018
12 noon
Thank you