Industrial chicken producer hits out over Wye and Usk river pollution claim

Lawyers for one of the country’s biggest producers of industrially farmed chicken have attacked a claim that they are responsible for pollution in the River Wye and River Usk. More than 1,300 people have signed up to sue Avara Foods, its subsidiary Freemans of Newent and the local sewage company Welsh Water for extensive and widespread pollution in the rivers and their catchment areas. In what their lawyers are calling the UK’s biggest ever environmental pollution claim, they blame the companies for the rivers turning green in the summer and becoming smelly and slimy. But at a preliminary hearing at the high court in London on Monday, Charles Gibson KC, representing Avara and Freemans, said the claim that their activities had caused the river pollution was “entirely inferential and is an oversimplification”. In written submissions, he said: “Their claim is fundamentally misconceived in law and in fact, lacking in any proper scientific basis, and misunderstands how poultry farms in fact operate.” The barrister said those bringing claims should set out how they had been personally affected and the approximate date it began. …