A COUNCIL may have to pay thousands in costs after a father and son won their two-year planning battle to start a free-range poultry business.

Bill Spry and his son, Steven, applied for permission to build a bird shed and temporary building on their 127-acre farm, at Hamsterley Mill, near Consett, County Durham, in November 2003.

However, their planning application to Derwentside District Council drew objections from residents, who complained that the business would increase traffic and the poultry would be noisy, smelly and pollute the nearby River Derwent.

Council planning officers recommended that the application be approved, but after a site visit, councillors turned it down.

When the Sprys appealed, the council called for a public inquiry. Three barristers representing the council, a residents' association and the Sprys gave evidence at the eight-day hearing. Rod Hepple-white, a senior planning consultant with regional law firm Blackett Hart and Pratt, was appointed by the Sprys to handle the case.

He said: "We provided evidence that odour and noise would not be a problem, that poultry were safer than sheep in terms of potential contamination of the River Derwent, and that the poultry shed would be an acceptable feature in the landscape.

"We always felt we had a very strong case.

"It was a rural business on an established farm, far enough away from houses so as not to have any adverse impact."

Planning inspector Karl Moxon ruled that the application should be approved.

Mr Hepplewhite is finalising the family's application for costs against the council.