POWYS campaigners have taken a bid to halt all intensive poultry unit development to the Senedd, while a large-scale development in Talybont remains in limbo.

Rows over the development of large chicken farms in mid Wales have continued over the past few years, with Powys seeing a large number of developments since 2018 and more than 100 since 2015. Ceredigion itself has also been subject to several applications.

A plan to develop infrastructure to house 110,000 chickens at Ty Nant in Talybont remains with Ceredigion County Council planners despite a deadline set for decision having passed.

The plan - already rejected by planners once over a lack of information - attracted more than 500 objections on both occasions.

Ceredigion County Council told the Cambrian News that no decision has yet been made on the plans - which were resubmitted in January last year - as officers “continue to assess the application, with particular regards as to the potential impact of the proposed development on protected sites and species”.

In an environmental statement, produced for the proposal, the owners of Ty Nant commented on the proposed development’s capacity to help meet the “rising demand for poultry meat in the UK and becoming self-sufficient in poultry meat”, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions by not having to import the meat.

But hundreds of objections were registered saying the plans would “reduce landscape value”, “significantly increase traffic”, cause “pollution by chicken manure”, “air pollution” and serious concerns over animal welfare.

Meanwhile, environment groups, including representatives from Powys, met politicians at the Senedd in Cardiff on 15 February asking for a moratorium to be placed on intensive poultry farming.

The clamour for a chicken farm moratorium has been gathering momentum with several Powys environmental groups wanting to meet Julie James, the Welsh Government’s Climate Change minister, to discuss the issue.

A petition for a moratorium has also been discussed several times by the Senedd’s petitions committee and is expected to return again for further debate soon.

Since 2015, over 130 poultry unit applications have been approved in Powys, which has been dubbed ‘the poultry capital of Wales’, while plans for a 112,000 chicken farm in Newtown are currently being decided upon by county council officers.