Harecroft slaughterhouse is warned about smells (From Keighley News)

Harecroft slaughterhouse is warned about smells

11:00am Saturday 29th September 2012 in News By Keighley News reporter

Bosses at a controversial chicken slaughterhouse who have been accused of blighting a village with the site’s “horrendous stink” have been told to clean up their act.

Chesterfield Poultry, which has a slaughterhouse in Station Road, Harecroft, has been served with a notice by the Environment Agency (EA) after being caught breaching the terms of its operating permit five times during an inspector’s visit.

Tim Shaw, of the EA’s pollution prevention control team, confirmed two of the breaches were related to “odours” from the slaughterhouse.

He said: “We have notified the company of these breaches and have asked them to remedy them. We expect this may help to improve the situation, but it is unlikely to eliminate odours from the site.”

Fed-up villagers say they can no longer put up with the terrible smells.

Robert Armstrong, a former parish councillor, said: “It is like living with a dead rat, it is that bad. It should have never been given a licence in the first place. Everybody wants it closed.”

Another, David Driver, 67, of Old Allen Road, said the stink makes people “feel sick” and means villagers cannot sit outside or hang out washing.

Bradford councillor Michael Ellis said people’s lives “were being blighted” by the horrendous smells from the slaughterhouse at The Haven Poultry Farm, and called for the EA to take more action if the problem was not resolved.

Coun Ellis (Con, Bingley Rural) said: “What I am going to do is speak to the residents, speak to the parish council and the company.

“I hope they will be able to take a responsible attitude to their neighbours. We can then have a hotline so that the residents can contact a designated person at the company to report a terrible smell, so they can go out there and, hopefully, immediately stop it.”

Earlier this month, the EA said it had had a “high volume” of complaints, mostly about smell from the farm.

There have also been complaints about the number of wagons using country lanes and the noise of a public address system at the farm.

Mr Shaw said: “We undertook an unannounced inspection of the site. We looked closely at the activities ongoing at the time and noted five breaches of their environmental permit. Two of the breaches we noted have the potential to cause odours.

“We will continue to look for opportunities to better control potential sources of odour and where these arise will require the operator to make improvements.”

The agency has its own dedicated 24-hour manned phone line to report any problems. Anyone wishing to complain should call 0800 807060.

No one at the company was available for comment.