Foston pig development could breach local residents’ human rights
10 February 2012
An industrial scale indoor pig unit, holding 25,000 pigs, proposed to be built less than 150 metres from a large women’s prison, and within 75 metres of houses, poses serious risks to the health of residents, prison officers and prisoners, and could breach their right to protection of their private and family life.
Following legal advice, Friends of the Earth, Foston Community Forum, Pig Business and the Soil Association have today written to Derbyshire County Council urging them to refuse planning permission for the proposed development at Foston in Derbyshire.
The legal letter cites recent research showing that intensive pig factories of this kind can negatively affect the health of nearby residents. This has been confirmed by the Government's Health Protection Agency, which says that those living within 150 metres of intensive pig farms "could be exposed to multi-drug resistant organisms".
With pig farming accounting for approximately 60% of all UK farm antibiotic use, research has shown that the levels of disease and the use of antibiotics both increase as pig farms get bigger. Larger herd size is linked with higher levels of many diseases in pigs, including some that can cause illness in people. Indeed, for certain bacteria, such as salmonella and campylobacter, most of the antibiotic resistance in human infections comes from farm-animal antibiotic use.
Dr Victoria Martindale, a representative of the Foston Community Forum, said “as a medical professional, I am concerned about the health risks that this proposal will bring to local residents. Those living in the closest vicinity to the proposed site include the most susceptible and at risk groups, such as children, the elderly and individuals already with known respiratory and other diseases. It is not fair to expect the residents of Foston to go about their everyday lives while being forced to continuously breathe in air that will put their and their families’ health at risk.”
Derbyshire County Council is obliged under the Human Rights Act 1998 to consider the rights of third parties when deciding whether to grant planning permission. The prison staff cannot avoid working close to the proposed development, unless they resign from their jobs. Similarly, inmates of Foston Hall prison are not living in the area by choice, and clearly do not have the option of moving away if the pig development goes ahead. Both will be unable to escape the risk to their health posed by this development, and the letter warns that allowing the pig factory to go ahead could also breach the inmates’ right to be protected from inhumane treatment
Peter Melchett, Policy Director of the Soil Association, noted that “objections to the pig factory at Foston are mounting all the time, because of the growing weight of new scientific evidence of real risks to the health of local people, and to the staff and inmates of the prison right next door to the proposed site. Now it seems that the legal rights of local people may also be infringed by the proposed development.”
If you want to help stop the introduction of huge pig factories to the UK, you can join the Soil Association’s Not in My Banger campaign. Help us fight against a dramatic escalation of industrial pig farming in the UK. If we don’t act now, thousands of pigs in the future could be kept in massive factories - changing British farming forever.
We need your help though. If you agree with us, then make your voice heard officially by registering your opposition to the planners on the Derbyshire County Council website. The decision has been delayed and there is still time to object to the planning application so please make your voice heard now. Please also copy your response to us at responses@soilassociation.org.
Read the story in the Guardian and Independent.
Watch BBC Inside Out West Midlands on Foston, featuring Soil Association Policy Director Peter Melchett and celebrity campaigners Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall and Dominic West (available until 20/02/12).
