Court to review go-ahead for UK's first large land-based salmon farm
Councillors may have been misdirected about legal relevance of animal welfare concerns
A judicial review is to be held into a decision to grant planning permission for a 5,000-tonnes-per-year land-based salmon farm between Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
Following an oral hearing in Leeds, campaigning organisation Animal Equality UK has been given the go-ahead to bring the judicial review of the decision by North East Lincolnshire Council to the High Court. Permission for the review was granted on the basis that it was arguable that the council’s planning officers misdirected its planning committee that animal welfare concerns could not be material planning considerations as a matter of law.
Aquacultured Seafood Ltd (ASL) plans to produce Atlantic salmon annually in a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) which will be built on a former railway siding at New Clee. The project which will create 80 full-time jobs.
North East Lincolnshire Council’s planning committee voted 7-4 in favour of the project in November last year.
'Proper scrutiny'
During the planning meeting in November, Animal Equality UK executive director Abigail Penny warned that an accidental flick of a switch can be catastrophic for fish in RAS.
“Take (Bakkafrost Scotland's) Applecross Hatchery, for example, where 1.5 million fish died in August last year because a system failure caused the water to become too acidic. This is one of many similar recorded incidents in on-land farms,” Penny told councillors.
Animal Equality opposes salmon farming on land and in the sea, and says it is "working to dismantle the system as a whole and stop its expansion". The group also promotes a plant-based diet.
In a press release announcing Animal Equality’s success in winning a full judicial review hearing, Edie Bowles, solicitor at the group’s legal representative, Advocates for Animals, said the case “was all about proper scrutiny being given for planning decisions that pose huge risks, including to animal welfare”.
“We are glad the judge agrees that there is an arguable case that the UK’s first on-land fish farm did not receive proper scrutiny by the local authority and that the court will now look into this in more detail,” added Bowles.
Aquacultured Seafood Ltd director Mike Berthet said the company did not wish to comment while the legal process was ongoing.
