A 325,000-head broiler farm has been approved about 10 kilometres west of Newstead after it was previously knocked back twice in the state’s planning tribunal.
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Central Goldfields Shire rejected the proposal multiple times, but it was approved in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week.
In a statement, the council’s general manager technical services David Sutcliffe said they had defended their position “rigorously”.
“Whilst we accept the determination of VCAT we are sympathetic to the concerns and frustrations of our local community and we will work to ensure the conditions of the permit are strictly met,” he said.
The broiler farm will have six sheds 17.3 metres wide, 180 metres long and 4.3 metres high.
The farm will produce between five and six batches of chickens per annum, with two weeks between each batch for the sheds to be cleaned.
The proposal had earlier failed to get a permit due to odour, noise, visual amenity and potential environmental impacts on both the Moolort Wetlands and migratory birds.
It received 27 objections.
Since it last failed to get through VCAT, the operator reduced the bird capacity, reduced the shed numbers from eight to six and moved them to create a greater buffer with the site boundary.
In her reasons, VCAT presiding member Michelle Blackburn said the farm was unlikely to add to the odour already present from other agricultural uses in the area.
“The modelling also indicates that there is not likely to be a material change to existing conditions as a result of the proposed farm,” she said.
“These results give us confidence that the proposal will not give rise to unacceptable amenity impacts.
“Whether the current levels of odour experienced by residents is acceptable or not, having regard to the location of these properties in a farming area where some level of odour is to be expected, is not a matter for us to decide.”
Goulburn-Murray Water also did not have any objections to the proposal, dismissing concerns about possible impacts to local water sources.
VCAT added a range of conditions to the permit, including requirements for an environmental management plan, landscape plan and stormwater management plan.
Nearby residents have signalled their intention to take the matter to the Supreme Court.