Say NO to the proposed Broiler Chicken Farm in Partaloa!
Do you want a Broiler Chicken Farm in Partaloa?
Partaloa town hall has sent to Dip.Almeria a proposal to build a “chicken farm” just over 1km north of Piedra Amarilla village. The proposal appears to be for thousands of broiler chickens, fattened up over 6-8 weeks on constant rotation, crammed into a building of some 2,000 square metres.
The Mayor has said there is recommended at least 500m between a chicken farm and the nearest homes, but that is debatable and nothing has been found in the EU directive.
The recently acquired parcela involved (plot 132) is within 500 metres of many residential houses, and even a group of 8 homes in direct line of sight less than 300 metres away.
The “chicken farm” is not a continuance or expansion of a traditional chicken farmer’s family business, is not a traditional agricultural activity for this area, but would be an industrial-scale factory operation where no such thing has existed before, producing large quantities of broiler chickens each year.
It would be very close to houses, producing appalling smells that would spread over the whole municipality.
Once permission is given for one farm, that’s a precedent, we could end up with 10 or 20 chicken farms!
Plot 132 is the proposed chicken farm. The purple line is the 3.5 tonne tarmac road. The feint grey line is the 'goat track' wide enough for a car, crossing private land plot #153 and #152.
Proximity to residential houses.
Smells, dust and noise pollution
Extremely strong smells come from poultry farms – just visit the Oria turkey farm for an example! Not all of them are like that – Chirivel seems to be an exception. However chicken farms smell much worse than pig farms, and the smell could spread up to 3km downwind. Chicken farms invariably cause rodent infestations, noise pollution, and huge increases in flies and mosquitos.
Not to mince words, large quantities of chickens every 7 weeks is a huge number every year – that’s a huge amount of poo. Where is that going to go?
Health hazard
Airborne diseases are endemic with chicken farms; studies have shown an increase of 11% in pneumonia close to chicken farms – anyone with COPD will be particularly vulnerable. Don’t forget a lot of people have settled here for the dry climate for the sake of their health, so are already potentially vulnerable. Ammonia, ammonium nitrate and sulphate, H2S, coarse and fine dust particles, gases and endotoxins will all be generated and potentially released.
Traffic
There is a 3.5 tonne weight limit on our local road; laying the base alone for the farm would require up to 100 cement trucks with a gross weight of 30 tonnes each. The number of large trucks needed to service the farm would be substantial – bringing in chicks and feed, taking out broilers and effluent. If it’s claimed that the site would require 20 lorry movements in and out for each flock and 10 tonne lorries, you can guarantee that it will actually need 40 lorries of 20 tonnes plus.
The possible southern access is an old goat track currently just wide enough for a car, that crosses two private residential properties, that starts at the tarmac road by the new solar farm. The possible northern access goes from Cerro Gordo rambla, which is prone to heavy damage in storms.
Electricity and water
There is currently no electricity to the site, but huge amounts will be needed – 25% of chicken farm costs (from income) are for energy needs. The chicken farm would provide little, if any, new employment opportunities for the municipality.
Water is a major concern. The only water supply nearby is a neighbouring farmer for irrigation. There are issues locally with water supply to homes, which is often interrupted, coming from wells with a finite supply.
The water consumption for thousands of broilers is huge annually just for the birds, with substantial further amounts needed for cleaning and disinfecting; Does the municipality currently have sufficient water for a full and continuous supply? I think we can all agree the answer to that question. Can it increase it by another few millions of litres?
In a nutshell
So, you have a chicken farm needing well over a few million litres of water per annum – where’s that going to come from?
It needs new, substantial roads – who’s going to provide them? - and will cause excessive wear and tear on our other roads. It needs huge numbers of large lorry movements in and out of the site – will there be any attempt to control or police such vehicle movements?
There will be appalling smells and harmful wind-borne particulates across the whole municipality. How can that be acceptable?
Once permission is given for one farm, that’s a precedent, we could end up with 10 or 20 chicken farms!
The Town Hall announced that Almeria vetoed a garden waste rubbish tip in Partaloa on environmental grounds – if they reject garden waste, how could they consider approving a chicken farm?
We don’t currently know if the ayuntamiento stands to make substantial sums in licence fees and the Spanish equivalent of business rates. If they do, we would hope those sums feed back to alleviate the adverse effects felt in Lentisco and beyond. Unlikely and of course there is no guarantee to that.
What about our house values?
Can you just imagine the devaluation due to a nearby chicken farm? This will affect all of us in the area.
There have been a couple of failed pig farm bids in nearby areas; in Albanchez the Town Hall rejected one after protests were made, because it would have set a precedent in their area, it would have led to no extra employment, and would have caused excessive smells near local houses. In Taberno a strong local campaign picked holes in the planning permissions already granted, and their Town Hall backtracked.
It can be done, but...
If Almeria approve the proposal, then immediate legal representation will be needed. We need funds.
Legal representation and a petition, is already in place to try to protect residents and to submit our objections. It may become necessary to go to court to stop the town hall and/or Dip.Almeria to prevent this project. This could become very expensive. Costs have already been incurred which have been funded by individuals. We are hoping people will be generous in order to protect their interests.
Sign the petition
An impressive 306 Say NO to the Chicken Farm proposal.
(187 from local ex-pat community and 119 from Spanish nationals from nearby districts)
That is the number to date of signatures in our Campaign Petition.
187 from the local Ex-pat community, and additionally 100 Spanish nationals from nearby districts, who obviously agree
that a precedent should not be allowed. The registered population of Partaloa is only 1035!
Please add your signature to our petition to say NO to the proposed chicken farm. The petition can be signed at:
Bar Mis Amigos, Calle San Antonio 14, Partaloa
Lorena's Café Bar, Piedra Amarilla
The Courtyard Bar in Piedra Amarilla (formerly the Sunburnt Arms)
OR you can print out the form here, and ask as many Partaloa residents as you can to sign also.
The form can be collected if you live locally, please email epra21es@gmail.com, or can be dropped off at one of the bars shown above.
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