A FARMING family won the go-ahead to create an open slurry lagoon – despite objections from concerned neighbours.

The owners of Bradley Farm, at Hincaster, applied for planning permission for the 45m by 25m lagoon in place of a 40-year-old store on their 130 hectare plot.

Neighbours said the plan should be refused because the lagoon was just 120m from the nearest house and that it could be possible to pump the slurry to a store further away.

But South Lakeland District Council’s planning committee unanimously approved the plan.

Adam Pickthall, from J F Pickthall & Sons, said the lagoon was necessary because the current storage was inadequate to keep supplies over winter.

He argued the new slurry would reduce the farm’s reliance on artificial fertiliser for its fields, which are home to 150 milking cows, 200 calves and 200 inland mule ewes.

“To comply with latest Environment Agency guidelines and best industry practice, the farm is now required to have enough capacity to store all the slurry produced over the winter while cattle are housed, up to six months in Cumbria,” said Mr Pickthall, whose family has farmed the land for 140 years.

“We are not expanding our business, just wanting to use the slurry as a natural fertiliser to be spread on fields when the crops are growing rather than wasting this resource on wet fields in the winter.”

He said the lagoon is further away from houses than the existing store and that it would be less visible than a concrete or steel tower.

But Angela Halford, who was speaking on behalf of a group of residents from Hincaster, said the proposal should be refused.

Twelve neighbours lodged objections on the basis of health concerns, environmental impacts, odour, the impact of pests, emission of toxic gases and the potential for the overflow of the lagoon in abnormal rainfall and leakage into watercourses.

“Bradley Farm does not sustain Hincaster,” she said. “Neither is dependent on the other. Agriculture dictates the landscape of Hincaster, but not the people that live there.

“This is not an issue of NIMBY. We simply urge a more thoughtful, creative application.”

But councillors sided with the applicants.

Cllr Kevin Lancaster said: “It’s very obvious this as a well-run farm and quite obvious they need this lagoon.”

A separate application for a new building to house animals, on the site of the former tin slurry tanker, was also approved.

Mr Pickthall said this would ‘improve animal health’ by reducing livestock density in existing buildings over winter.