Victory for River Action as High Court rules chicken manure is waste in landmark case

In a landmark victory for environmental campaigners, the High Court has ruled that chicken manure can be classified as ‘waste,’ and a council was entitled to require it to be disposed of under council waste rules. This marks a significant breakthrough for ERF grantee partner River Action in its fight against industrial-scale poultry farming in the Wye Valley.

Pollution from agriculture, much of it from manure from animals on farms, is the biggest source of water pollution in the UK. This ruling exposes the regulatory failures that have allowed unchecked agricultural pollution to devastate the environment, particularly in waterways such as the River Wye.

After Herefordshire County Council (HCC) introduced new waste management rules in March 2024, the National Farmers Union (NFU) challenged them in court. The NFU argued that manure from large poultry farms should be considered a natural by-product of farming, not waste, and therefore shouldn’t be subject to strict waste disposal rules. While the NFU acknowledged that chicken manure is a major cause of pollution in the River Wye, it still argued that waste regulations shouldn’t apply and that HCC had no right to enforce new policies on its disposal.

In its intervention, River Action said environmentally damaging algal blooms in the River Wye, which deplete oxygen and kill fish, have arisen as a result of livestock manure causing excessive phosphates to build up in the soil and leach into waterways. They said manure should be considered “waste” until its point of use, and farmers should be responsible for properly disposing of it under waste management rules.

The judge, Mrs. Justice Lieven, agreed that there’s no guarantee manure will always be handled safely. She ruled that, except for very specific cases, chicken manure in the Wye Valley is legally “waste” until it is sold or given to someone else. Because of this, poultry farmers in Herefordshire must now submit a clear plan when applying for planning permission, showing exactly how they will dispose of their manure safely. They can’t just assume existing wastewater rules will cover it.

This decision has profound implications for agricultural practices nationwide. The judge also rejected the NFU’s claim that existing manure disposal rules were effective. She stated that these regulations had “beyond any doubt failed to protect the environment.” Her ruling underscores that planning authorities are not obligated to defer to failing regulatory regimes when clear evidence of environmental harm exists.

River Action chair Charles Watson concluded: “This historic court ruling marks a major victory both for the River Wye and rivers generally across the nation… [it] clarifies once and for all that the intensive factory production of livestock is clearly an industrial manufacturing process, whereby the often-toxic waste that it produces must be treated as such. This landmark ruling should set a vital precedent… that our environmental regulators need to now take urgent action to enhance pollution regulations to reflect the serious threat that intensive livestock production clearly poses to the health of our rivers.”