Planning application for controversial East Cork piggery withdrawn
The industrial pig farm at Ballymacoda would have produced 7 million litres of pig slurry and 70 tonnes of waste carcasses from "normal mortality" each year.
A planning application for a 4,300-animal industrial piggery in Ballymacoda, East Cork, has been withdrawn during an appeal to An Bórd Pleanála.
A cautious welcome has been given by local community group POWER (Protection of Water, Environment and Residents) for the news that Derra Farms Ltd has withdrawn their application to knock an existing piggery and build larger facilities to house 4,224 - 4,500 “finisher” pigs at Curraheen, Ballymacoda.
The industrial pig farm would have produced 7 million litres of pig slurry and 70 tonnes of waste carcasses from "normal mortality" each year. The application included two 2455m2 “fattening houses,” each proposed to house 2,250 pigs.
It would have employed two people.
A spokesperson for POWER told Tripe + Drisheen that they are “really pleased that Derra Farms made the decision to withdraw their application. We look forward to seeing what future plans for the site are. We are really grateful to and proud of the local community for all the submissions and work and all the fundraising that was done.”
Tripe + Drisheen first wrote about the application in March 2021, the initial planning documents having been lodged with Cork County Council in August 2020:
3,350 people signed an online petition against the development and there were 222 submissions objecting to the original planning application. Cork County Council granted planning permission for the facility in April of 2021.
However, seven parties, including Darina Allen of Ballymaloe House and POWER, appealed the decision to An Bórd Pleanála in May 2021.
They cited concerns for water quality in the area - the 7 million litres of pig slurry produced annually were set to be spread on farms in 18 townlands in the region, some in close proximity to the sea - as well as odour, animal welfare issues and potential disruption to local tourism development.
The €15 million Youghal to Midleton Greenway project, whose first phase is set to open this summer, runs past just 1.6km away from the proposed piggery site.
Ballycotton resident Karen O’Donohoe, best known for co-presenting RTE’s Grow, Cook, Eat show, said that although she welcomed the withdrawal of the planning application, she is keenly aware that her broader animal welfare concerns regarding industrial pig farming had not been addressed by the process and that similar applications could be made in other locations.
“We dodged this bullet in East Cork, but they still have the loaded gun,” she said. “There’s nothing to stop them applying again.”
The owner of Derra Farms Ltd had not responded to a request for comment by the time of going to print: we will update the article if he does so.