FARMERS are said to be desperate to get their hands on 1,500 tonnes of chicken droppings which will be produced each year by an expanded egg farm in East Lothian – due to the rising cost of fertiliser.

East Lothian Eggs Ltd has been granted planning permission to build a new 100-metre-long poultry shed next to its current facilities at Howden Farm, near Gifford, which will double the number of hens on site from 32,000 to 64,000.

And a virtual meeting of the council’s planning committee heard on Tuesday that the waste produced by the birds was already in high demand from local farmers.

Michael Scott, from the egg company, told members of the committee that the flock would produce 1,500 tonnes of manure which would be dried down into around 500 tonnes of chicken litter.

He said: “It will be exported to other farms locally.

"Everyone is desperate for it. The price of man-made fertiliser has gone through the roof and this is probably going to be the next best thing going forward.

'Massive help'

“It has actually been a massive help in the area for local farmers to produce a higher yield of crops.”

Mr Scott was speaking as councillors were told that there had been two written objections to the expansion of the business, with concerns over odour, noise and movement of the litter expressed.

Scottish Greens councillor Shona McIntosh called the application in after officers recommended it for approval, but she said that many of her questions had been answered by the applicants.

And Councillor Norman Hampshire, council leader, told the meeting that people who wanted to live in the East Lothian countryside needed to understand it was a “working environment”.

He said: “People have to earn a living and produce food we need and there will be noise and smells but that is the nature of things and something people who live there have to accept.”

The application for the new poultry shed also included the erection of a building containing an egg packing facility, two 9m-high feeding silos and an area of hard standing to be used as a car parking area.

Mr Scott told the committee that the company was currently following guidance issued over avian flu and keeping its hens indoors until such time as it was advised they could be allowed out.

The application was unanimously backed by councillors.