It comes as an animal rights activist continues to put the Blantyre piggery plans on blast for going against newly amalgamated Hilltops Council’s environmental agenda. 

The comments from animals rights activist Lisa Ryan came after the Council decided to delegate a decision on the Blantyre Farms Harden plan to an independent body.

According to business papers, the body will makes its decision focusing on the degree to which traffic, flora and fauna biodiversity, and water resources will be impacted.

The independent task force will also look to address two “very different” odour assessments from the applicants and those objecting to the plans, the paper said. 

 “We would like Hilltops Council to really weigh up whether it is along the lines of the new logo, which talks about environment, sustainability and tourism and moving forward with things that really will have a positive impact on the region,” Ms Ryan said.

“At some point you have got to say enough, there is too much damage going on with these things, it is a new world and the public are opposed to this type of agriculture – they want to see animals in fields, not in sheds.”

But the people pushing for the development, Pig farmers Michael and Edwina Beveridge, have defended their proposal in an April letter to a local paper. The family already owns two piggeries in Young. 

The Beveridges wrote that they “care for their animals and our land”, and have “no intention of polluting our soil, waterways or the environment”. 

Their proposed piggery would provide 20 new jobs, use local farmers’ feed grain and help supply the “shortage of pork in Australia”, they said.

 “There is a planning process,” the Beveridges wrote. “The EPA [Environment Protection Agency] will not grant this if they feel there is a risk to the environment.” 

Since the development application for the piggery was put up for public consultation late last year, it attracted the highest number of responses on record with 1400 counted as of June 6.  But many were suspected of not being from local residents.  

An online petition, which gathered more than 25,000 signatures, was criticized for being mostly signed by national animal right groups.