A FARMER has been forced to seek retrospective planning permission for sheds housing hundreds of hens.

Harry Hodgson is the third generation of his family to run the award-winning Piercebridge Farm, near Darlington.

Hens have been kept on the farm for 22 years and on the 17-acre application site for the past ten.

Darlington Borough Council informed Mr Hodgson that the rotating sheds meet the definition of 'development'.

Mr Hodgson has been invited to apply for planning permission in the light of a 2012 court case in Somerset, where an action group was formed to fight what it described as intensive poultry farming.

Darlington council's planning committee will debate Mr Hodgson's retrospective application for three mobile hen sheds at a meeting next week.

Papers prepared for committee members describe the farm as home to 3,000 hens in a total of 17 sheds, only three of which are the subject of the retrospective application.

Planning officers are recommending that planning permission be granted subject to the submission of detailed drawings.

There has been a mixed response to public consultation over the plans, with six letters of objection and four letters of support received by the council.

A number of objectors raised concerns about an increase in the number of flies in and around their homes since the sheds were installed.

Supporters of the application point to the positive impact the farm has had in the village over the past 50 years.

One supporter wrote: "The buildings for housing the hens are unobtrusive and in keeping with the environment and locality.

"The farm is a multiple award-winning environment [and has] created both employment and services for locals, all of which I feel should be supported."

Another supporter, a local vet, wrote: "There are a few more flies in Piercebridge than where I live, but there are many more trees and a river at Pierecebridge.

"I inspected the hen houses during a heat wave and saw no house flies in the hen houses.

"In my opinion, the organic hens are not the source of house flies in the village."

Mr Hodgson was unavailable for comment.

The committee meets at 1.30pm on Wednesday (November 19), at Darlington town hall.