Chicken Farm causes taxpayers thousands of pounds worth of damage to single road

Frank Adlington-Stringer of the Green Party recently submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Derbyshire County Council after being contacted by residents regarding the deterioration of Malthouse Lane (home to Stubbing Court house and pond).

the lane can be seen higghlighted in yellow

The lane frequently suffers potholes, surface slips, collapsing dry stone wall, cracks in the road and other damage caused by the lorries which have plagued the village ever since the 2.4 hectare Chicken Farm opened. Despite it’s rapid expansion in recent years and output of approx. 310,000 chickens every 56 days, the farm remains restricted to the same single track route in and out.

Not only does this cause distress and inconvenience to residents but also a huge burden to taxpayers. Frank’s FOI request uncovered £73K worth of repairs in just 7 years.This figure however is not a true reflection of the total costs incurred as it accounts for less than 10% of the works undertaken between 2014-21. As Derbyshire County Council haven’t kept a record of all of their expenditure we will never know just how many hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent on this lane in.

“It is beyond belief that an industrial sized Chicken Farm, up a small single track road in a residential area, was ever granted planning permission!” - Frank Adlington-Stringer

In the 10 years to date there have been no injury collisions on Malthouse Lane, yet it has vast sums of money spent on it whilst more dangerous roads in the village are ignored.

Frank has raised this issue with MP Lee Rowley and local councillors however nothing has been done about it. The planning approval was so vague and broad that there are virtually no grounds to stop the farm’s rapid expansion. This is a failure of the planning system and unfortunately adds to the long list of inappropriate builds here in Wingerworth.

Frank is working to get ‘Unsuitable for HGV’ signage up around the village and limit the impact of these lorries.

You can watch a video with more information here...