DEBORAH Moggach, the author, is one of 1,500 people who have signed a petition to the Welsh Assembly expressing concern over the “damaging effects of intensive poultry units”.
Ms Moggach, who received an OBE in this year’s New Year’s honours list, signed the petition when campaigners the Brecon and Radnor branch of the Council for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW) held a signing session in the centre of Presteigne on Easter Saturday.
Ms Moggach, who lives in Presteigne, wrote the novel These Foolish Things which was adapted into the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel starring Maggie Smith. On January 1 she was awarded an OBE for services to literature and drama.
The CPRW petition calls on the Welsh Assembly to urge the Welsh Government to “take long-term strategic action to ensure that the poultry product industry is environmentally sustainable throughout Wales”.
A CPRW spokesman said they needed as many people as possible to sign the petition “because the Welsh Government is ignoring the devastating environmental conseq-uences for biodiversity, soil and water quality and avian and human disease”.
The CPRW says that in Powys alone, there have been 99 planning applications for chicken sheds in the last 30 months, accounting for over three million birds.
Although most of these qualify as ‘free range’ units, for either egg or broiler production, even this type of unit usually houses over 30,000 birds.
Copies of the petition can be signed in shops in mid Wales or an online version can be signed by accessing the Welsh government website under ‘Welsh Assembly petition intensive poultry’ or ‘Welsh Assembly petition 1305’. Further details are on the Brecon and Radnor CPRW’s website www.brecon-and-radnor-cprw.wales.
A spokesperson said the Welsh Government’s policy on poultry units was aimed at producing “a prosperous, resilient poultry industry... achieved by ensuring the highest standards of health and welfare, minimising the use of antibiotics and reducing the impact on the environment”.