Poultry plant stopped

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33928, 22 August 1975, Page 8

Poultry plant stopped

The No. 2 Town and Country Planning Appeal Board has ruled against a proposal to erect a poultry abattoir and processing plant at the northern end of Cranford Street, thus cancelling an earlier permission granted by the Waimairi County Council.

The decision resulted from an appeal by the Canterbury Regional Planning Authority against the county council’s granting permission to Combined Cooperative Distributors, Ltd, to build the abattoir next to an egg-sorting depot already run by the firm at 472 Cranford Street.

The area is zoned rural in the council’s district scheme and zoned special rural in the planning authority’s regional scheme. Permission for the eggsorting plant was granted in 1969 and the appeal board agreed that the collection, processing, and distribution of eggs was clearly ancillary to poultry farming and therefore permissible in the rural zone. Reduction in flock numbers and in the permitted [ laying life of fowls has resulted in considerable culling of flocks. The culled birds are larger that those used in the broiler industry, and existing abattoirs and. processing plants cannot deal with the culled birds. Because of this, C.C.D. had sought permission to build the new abattoir. ‘SOME SYMPATHY’

It had been submitted to the appeal board that the abattoir and processing plant [would require a 3000 sq. ft building next to the present [44,000 sq. ft egg-handling plant.

“There was no reason advanced for the granting of the departure other than economics, it being submitted that the existing chillers could cope with chickens as well as eggs,” the board said in its decision. “The board has some sym-i

pathy with the applicant’s proposals, but sympathy is not sufficient when considering a specified departure,” the decision said. “The board does not regard the abattoir as an operation ancillary to the present egg-handling plant. It may well be that it can be conveniently carried on in association therewith, because of the link between the egg suppliers and the potential poultry suppliers. “This convenience does not, however, make it essential for these two differing industries to be carried on upon the same site, there being no by-product or product associated with either which renders it necessary to process both eggs and poultry in close proximity to each other. “However it is viewed, one cannot escape the conclusion that a poultry abattoir is proposed to be set up ‘out of zone’,” the decision said. APPROPRIATE ZONING

The board suggested that the existing egg-handling industry should perhaps be protected by an appropriate zoning other than rural, because of the size of the buildings and the scale of the business.

“To pretend that this industry does not exist is, in ' itself, undermining the integi rity of the zoning,” the decision said. “If, when recognising such an industry, the council was of the opinion 'that a poultry abattoir should be permitted in the rural zone, then it should change its scheme to allow [those who wish to object to such a proposition to air [ their views in a proper manner,” the decision said. The members of the appeal board were Messrs W. J. M. Treadwell, S.M., (chairman), R. J. Calvert, and A. iB. Thomson.