High Court chicken waste judgment bolsters River Wye pollution claim against Avara Foods and Cargill, say lawyers

In legal action between the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and Herefordshire County Council (HCC) campaign group River Action intervened and successfully argued that chicken manure should be classified as ‘waste’ and must be disposed of under HCC waste rules.

As Leigh Day also says in its River Wye legal claim that chicken manure is waste in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act 1990, it says the ruling strengthens its case against Cargill. The defendants deny the allegations in the legal claim. 

Following the adoption of Herefordshire County Council’s (HCC) Minerals and Waste Local Plan (MWLP) in March 2024, the NFU mounted a High Court challenge arguing that manure produced by agricultural developments like intensive poultry units is an agricultural by-product and should not be classified as waste. 

 This challenge was mounted in the context of thousands of tonnes of poultry manure being is produced by over 20 million chickens in the river Wye catchment alone, which it is alleged has affected the environment due to the unsustainable scale of this industrialised waste production.  

In its intervention, River Action said environmentally damaging algal blooms in the River Wye have arisen as a result of livestock manure causing excessive phosphates to build up in the soil, which then runs off and leaches into waterways, and should be classed as waste.  The group also argued that controls need to be in place to ensure that waste producers take responsibility for disposing of waste in a lawful way. 

Algal blooms block sunlight, remove oxygen and cause widespread algal deposits across the riverbed, with severe consequences for the vegetation and wildlife of the river.   

The Hon Mrs Justice Lieven agreed that it cannot be assumed that chicken manure will be used or disposed of in an environmentally safe way. She also agreed that, given the issues caused by chicken manure in the Wye catchment, manure is waste up to the point it is sold or transferred to a third party. This means that chicken producers will have to produce detailed, transparent plans about how chicken manure is disposed of safely. 

The Leigh Day team leading the legal claim against alleged polluters of the Rivers Wye say this bolsters their case. They allege that chicken manure is one of the primary pollutants  causing algal blooms in the Wye and say that the alleged polluters should be handling waste properly to prevent environmental damage and taking action to tackle the damage they have allegedly caused. 

Leigh Day environment team solicitors Carol Day and Ricardo Gama represented River Action in its intervention in the NFU legal claim. Carol Day said:

“The NFU sought to challenge common-sense policies in the Minerals and Waste Local Plan requiring new poultry units to have a detailed plan for disposing of chicken manure on the basis that the manure is not waste in law and therefore not covered by the MWLP. 

“The judge resoundingly agreed with River Action that chicken manure is classified as ‘waste’ in law. This judgment vindicates HCC’s approach and is a victory for the River Wye and the wider environment.” 

“This means that people proposing new Intensive Poultry Units in Herefordshire will need to put in place proper arrangements for dealing with the huge volumes of manure that is produced. The judgment should also now mean that proper environmental controls are put in place across the country to oversee the production and handling of manure from animals on farms.” 

Leigh Day partner Oliver Holland is representing residents and businesses in the Wye, Lugg and Usk catchment areas in their claim against Avara Foods/Cargill. He said: 

“We welcome this intervention by River Action and this important judgment from the High Court. Chicken manure, particularly at the scale that we see produced in the Wye region by Avara Foods and its intensive farming operations, is a pollutant and should be managed appropriately so that it does not harm the environment and impact the lives of those living around important natural resources like the Wye, Usk and Lugg rivers. This judgment recognises that and it is a significant development both for my clients in the Wye, Lugg and Usk regions who are seeking to hold alleged polluter to account but also in the wider environmental context to ensure that the environment is better protected from intensive farming practices.” 

River Action chairman Charles Watson said: 

“This landmark High Court judgment clarifies once and for all that the factory production of chicken, as practiced across the catchment of the River Wye by Avara for so many years, is an industrial process whose often-toxic emissions can no longer be seen an as an ‘agricultural by-product’ – but must be treated for what it is: industrial ‘waste’. The environmental catastrophe caused by these unsustainable farming practices have been unequivocally acknowledged in the Judge’s ruling – and it’s long overdue that Avara puts right the damage it has allegedly caused.”