Pig farm being built in vicinity of our new home

[rainbowBug]

Hi everyone,

My first post here. I'm completely devastated and could use some advice/perspective.
We bought a house last year in May. We wanted to escape city life but because neither of us grew up in a rural area, we found a compromise and purchased semi attached bungalow on the main road leading to a small village. The village itself is ugly - lots of council houses but the people seem to look after their own gardens and there's a really good nursery and primary in the village, about 10min walk from our house. Our house is on the main road with great access to motorway (apps 5min).
Our plan was to stay here for about five years and then move to Europe or abroad (due to my work).

We just found out that on the other side of the village they're building a pig processing plant!!! We're still trying to get more information to understand if it will be a farm, a slaughterhouse or a pork processing plant but my current understanding is that it may be a farm to accommodate 2000 pigs.
I'm utterly devastated. It's our first home, there was no consultation with the community, I'm dreading the smell, pollution and possible diseases and how this will negatively impact the value of our house. I want to leave ASAP but feel so powerless at the moment. We are tied in a five year mortgage, are in the middle of kitchen renovations and our eldest is just starting primary.
Really don't know what to do so any advice would be welcome.
Does anyone have any idea how this may impact the value of the house? What shall we do? Can they build these facilities without consulting neighbouring communities?
We live in Scotland btw, in case it makes any difference.

When you say on the other side of the village, how far will it be from you?
I don't know how planning permission works in Scotland, so I can't comment on that. Have you looked at your local council planning portal? There are different ways of keeping pigs. They could be free range and out in the fields with arcs, or they could be kept indoors. I think your concerns about disease and pollution are a bit over the top. Anyone looking after animals for profit, be they sheep, cattle or pigs, will look after their animals in order to maximise profit. This includes keeping them clean, well fed and disease free. Pigs are no dirtier than any other animal.
So, before you panic, find out what is going on. You are more likely to have a problem with vehicle movements servicing the farm than the pigs themselves, which is essentially more polluting. This is just part and parcel of country life really. If you had, say, a dairy farm open up near you (unlikely these days!) you would be in a similar situation, with mooing cows, silage and slurry pits. Is it just because it's pigs that you're worried?
Good to read that the council house people look after their gardens. Wouldn't want them letting the side down eh?

Greater local employment means more people to buy your house.

I’m a vegan so this would devastate me. I would be wanting to know where all the poo was going and all the waste products. There was a recent story about blood and other nasties leaching out of a pig slaughterhouse into the river or sea can’t remember which. That many pig will produce a lot of waste.

Not much help but I’ve got a bison farm with 2,000 bison being built near my home it’s blocked off my favourite hiking path and will have a high voltage electric fence over 10ft high all around it....

I live in a village and we successfully fought off a massive chicken processing plant that was going to be upwind of us on the village outskirts. We each wrote an objection and the reasons why and posted on the planning application/council site. It would have been terrible for the environment as the way the land was, it would have drained into the local watercourse. Also, the traffic through the narrow village centre would have been a nightmare, so check how many lorries will come and go. Ours would have been many, bringing new chicks, shipping out ready to slaughter hens, taking out the dead bodies (high attrition rate), taking out the muck and bringing in new bedding... that's a lot of traffic. Also, the smell would have drifted right over the village, given the prevailing wind. You do need to fight this as a group. You stand no chance as an individual.

I've also lived next door to a pig unit many years ago and the flies and smell meant we couldn't really use the garden in warm weather, or even have the windows open. Also, the lorries would turn up at 5am to take the pigs to slaughter and were incredibly noisy, men shouting and pigs screeching as they beat them into the lorries.

They will have consulted the community as part of the planning application process, potentially even advertised in local newspaper.

You should look up the details on your local authority's website. How far away is it exactly?

That’s so sad. If they kill the pigs there the screams will be heard far and wide. I protest outside of a lot of slaughterhouses/processing plants and you can hear the pigs screaming before you get anywhere near the place!

First of all, pigs often make noise when you ask them to do anything that isn't their idea so it's not fair to insinuate that what you hear are some sort of death scream, @skittlenommer my old sow that will be here til her humane-at the hands of the vet-end makes a racket if she sees a feed bucket, if she's in season, if I get her up out of bed to clean her out...you get the idea. They're a vocal animal and their vocals are a lot more grating than sheep baaing or cows bellowing.

Which does have a bearing on the OP. A modern pig unit will be of minimal pollution risk by design but PP is right about general working noise, and traffic. The slurry will likely go to an arable farmer as they then send the straw grown using it as fertiliser back to the pig unit, it's a nice sustainable loop, so I wouldn't worry too much about that hanging around. A meat processing unit without abattoir would be quieter obviously but still have traffic (but could say same about any business built on the land). An abattoir will also have traffic at certain times, early mornings especially, but may not be the worst option. For example, the one I use closed the attached butcher's shop and it's now rented out to a bridal wear business, clearly that wouldn't do well if the abattoir had any impact on it but you wouldn't know it was there, from the road.

I think it's reasonable to expect farming nearby if you live in the countryside. I can't imagine any risk from diseases and if they are outdoor there's unlikely to be much smell. Intensive indoor farming will be whiffier but you'll probably get stop noticing.

We have a chicken farm in our town ,or on the edge of it.
The smell on a hot day is horrendous
I’m vegan ,and it really upsets me .id be so upset if there was a pig farm as well.

How big is the village if it's the other side? There is a high chance this will have. Little to no impact on you.

Ignore the comment on the screams. Pigs make a shocking noise as part of their day, no matter how happy they are.

If you live in the countryside you have to expect that there will be farming and associated industries.

I assume you are a vegetarian?

I wouldn't be happy either but then I'm vegetarian. I agree though that if you're in the country then farming is to be expected.

How far away?

Similar happened to my folks. They have lived in their village for 50 years. The slaughter house was built in between their village and the next one.

It doesn’t cause any problem for them in way the plant operates, noise smell etc, but has created huge problems with traffic. The place operates 24 hours and most of the workers come from the near by town. There is a change of shift at 4 am which means all the workers coming from and going to the slaughter house go past the house.

The people who live very close by did get a pay out for the drop in house price.

I had a boyfriend who lived on a massive pig farm. You wouldn't have known they were there, if it wasn't for the signs. The waste was used to fertilise crops but only smelled at spreading time.

Farmers don't just grow a few carrots and chew on straw.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experience. Yes, we’re vegetarian and animal lovers. I find the thought of having animals slaughtered and/or possibly kept in inhumane conditions so appealing that my first thought was that we have to move house! Perhaps it was a bit naive of us to think that living in the countryside we’ll be surrounded by rolling green hills and happy sheep :)
I understand that there are certain standards that they need to adhere to but horror stories about the pollution and smells (although admittedly mostly from the US) still worry me about the potential environmental impact this facility might have.
As we’re based in between the motorway and the plant, the traffic past our house will most likely increase, which I’m dreading because it’s already quite noisy :( does anyone have any experience with reducing noise pollution from the road? Our windows are new so can’t change them again for a while. Would planting high hedges in front of the house help to lessen the noise?
On a positive side, because a lot of people in the village community are struggling (ex mining village that suffered a lot with closure of the mines), I hope that at least it will bring some employment opportunities for the local people.
The facility will be about one mile from our house.

Oh a mile away.
If it’s a farm then fine. If it’s a slaughter house then it’s a different kettle of fish really.

The planning application will include an environmental impact study. It will also tell you what the facility will be.

A few lorries a day on an already busy road near a motorway is not going to make much difference at all.

We had one of these on the Parish Council. Bought a cheap enough but lovely house in a semi rural area then campaigned, though the council, to stop any expansion of the chicken facility a mile from his house. He moved - along with his flash townie cars and condescending attitude.

Chicken facility now includes a pig processing place and a gorgeous spa/leisure centre. Pig stuff has been nominated on R4.

I don't do any of it: pigs, chickens or spas but the townie made no difference apart from making himself look stupid and selfish.

"rolling green fills and happy sheep." And what do you think happens to those sheep.?

Any way I would say def have a look inot this what exactly is the pig farm or what ever and how is it going to impact. Contact your local borough council.

I don't really think it will have much impact on you to be honest.

I think if you move to the countryside, which is where agriculture is happening, you really have to expect agriculture. Especially since it's creating jobs in a deprived area. At a mile away it's unlikely you'll have any issues really.

Pig farms have to work to very strict standards of welfare and dealing with ammonia etc

It’s a chance to get behind your local community and make sure it gets built providing local jobs for local people, minimising commuting and food miles. Your neighbours win, the environment wins, everyone wins.

There was a pork factory on the outskirts of my town growing up. I remember it smelt a bit when you drove right past it but that improved - I imagine better technology. Definitely a good source of employment.

There’s a thread in Classics about someone who lives in the country that had nature and animal hating neighbours - very funny.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/3280183-AIBU-to-think-that-if-you-hate-animals-you-shouldnt-move-to-the-countryside

Oh gosh i am getting flashbacks. When i was a kid we used to live across the road to a slaughter house for cows. The noise was horrific.