VILLAGERS have vowed to boycott an award-winning dairy after it unveiled plans to store slurry near their homes.
But the farmer behind the proposal says he is being forced into the plan to comply with a new law.
Delph House Farm, whose dairy makes Yummy Yorkshire ice cream, has submitted plans to Barnsley Council for a new slurry lagoon on the edge of Upper Denby.
The site, off Gunthwaite Lane, is only a few metres from houses and opposite a recently-installed memorial bench but is more than one mile from the High Flatts-based farm itself.
The plan has upset many villagers with some saying they will no longer take milk from the farm or visit its award winning ice-cream parlour.
Cathy Fletcher, who lives adjacent to the proposed slurry store, said there was a lot of ill feeling as they had only discovered the plan by chance.
She said: “We only found out by sheer fluke – the planning notice was found in a hedge bottom by a man. He had the presence of mind to pick it up and photocopy it and distribute it around the village. The whole village is in uproar.
“We’re not happy at all – the farm is well over a mile away – slurry stores should be sited next to the cowshed not brought across a main road, past a school and through a village.
“I suppose he doesn’t want it next to his ice-cream parlour.
“This is the one field he’s got that’s furthest away from his farm where he can dump it so we can all have the eyesore and keep the smell away from his farm.”
But Delph House Farm boss, Jeremy Holmes, said he was being forced into the plan by new environmental laws.
Mr Holmes said he was now required to store five-months’ worth of slurry as his farm was in a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone. He said he was not allowed to install a bigger tank on his farm and could not spread it on his farm as it was too near the water course.
And he said the new slurry plan would have very little impact on villagers, including ones who lived nearby.
He said: “The application is for a 400,000 litre tank, not 7m as some people have been saying.
“I’ve got full backing of the Environment Agency, they’ve been out and looked where it’s going.
“There will be very little impact on villagers as regards smell.
“I’m willing to cover it up with a hard sheet and there will be no flies because it will be transported during the winter months.
“The tank will be partially buried so they won’t even see it.
“At the end of the day this is going to cost me £35,000, it’s not something I want to do, it’s something I have to do to comply with regulations.
“If there was anywhere else I could build it, I would.”
Mr Holmes also said talk of boycotts against his businesses were deeply upsetting.
He added: “The fact that it’s come down to this saddens immensely.
“The ice-cream parlour is an integral part of the community – we’ve created jobs in the area and we’re doing lots for local people creating opportunities”.
