Right to farm or amenity?
Odours and sleepless nights from barking dogs at a Willow Grove egg farm have become central to a dispute of neighbours’ amenity versus the right to farm.
A Willow Grove couple is tired of dealing with sleepless nights and odours from a neighbouring egg farm.
Graeme and Sue Luke have lived on their property for 28 years. They feel they have little choice but to leave because issues with an adjoining farm operation cannot be resolved.
But the operators of Willow Zen egg farm Kelvin and Kuni Slade say they are simply exercising their right to farm and dispute that odour and barking dogs are issues.
Since January the Lukes say they have logged 114 nights of broken sleep, 95 incidents of odour and they have made 57 recordings of dogs barking excessively.
“We will have to toss it in and just go. They are running a business and I don’t know if they are in the right or wrong, but we can’t live like this. Council gave them the permit and need to address the concerns. We are at the end of our tether,” Mr Luke said.
The Lukes live next door to the free range egg farm. Two other neighbouring property owners share the Lukes’ concerns and battles with Baw Baw Shire Council to resolve noise and odour issues.
The Slades began the egg farm operation in September last year. There area about 3000 chickens on the 23 hectare property at any one time and five Merrimer dogs are used for protection from foxes. The chickens are housed in mobile sheds and caravans that are rotated around the property.
“We have a right to farm on the property. We are the gold standard of egg farms, we are perfectionists. Instead of cattle we have chickens
“We have bent over backwards to reduce any potential harms. Saying it smells is them using it as a weapon against farming.
“It is a farm and yes there is a little smell in some of the trailers but for a neighbour up to 400 metres away they wouldn’t smell it.
“It is not an overpowering smell that would reduce the amenity of your life,” he said.
Mr Slade said they often heard dogs barking on surrounding properties but believed their dogs were blamed for the barking.
He said their dogs would bark “occasionally” for between 15 seconds and one minute until the threat of foxes was deterred. “It is not nuisance barking.”
Mr Slade said rotation of the mobile trailers was one of the issues that could be resolved at mediation.
Baw Baw Shire confirmed a planning permit was not needed for the operation as it was an “as of right” use in a farm zone.
None of the neighbours opposed the Slades’ planning application to develop a house on the land. But, Mr Luke said they were not made aware of the proposal to operate a free range egg farm.
Mr Luke said there did not appear to be any “buffer zone” requirements for the operation.
He said while the chooks were in “penned” areas near the mobile sheds, the chooks sometimes escaped, wandering onto their property.
He said the dogs regularly barked for hours through the night while the odour from the farm was “disgusting.”
The neighbouring property owners have approached council officers in planning, by-laws and health on several occasions to resolve the amenity issues.
Mr Luke said the common response is, you are in a farm zone.
“They keep fobbing us off,” said neighbour Julie Powell. “We have complained about the dogs barking after going to the owners first but council keep saying we need to give them proof,” she said.
Shire growth and economic development director Matthew Cripps confirmed the Slades did not need a planning permit for the free range egg farm.
“There was some discussion whether it is intensive farming but there is not enough evidence to suggest it is intensive.”
Mr Cripps said the applicants sought a planning permit for a house some years ago. It was recommended for refusal by officers but approved by council.
He said the house had not been built and council staff were in discussions with the Slades about their current use of a shed on the site as a house.
Mr Cripps said council staff had inspected the site for odours and did not identify an issue. He said the complainants were told to contact council when the odour was occurring.
“Staff have also worked with the property owner to reduce the number of dogs on site to five and have been working with all parties to find a resolution to the barking complaints,” he said.
Mr Cripps said all parties were willing to participate in mediation and council could facilitate that process.