Plans for a veal farm in Stuckton near Fordingbridge have sparked fury among the villagers.

Hampshire County Council has bought Brooklands Farm in Stuckton as a “training farm” to farm the young beef cattle herd and to store dung and farm machinery equipment.

The 84-acre site includes a former milking parlour and mono-pitched barn, which will be replaced with three livestock barns, a storage barn, a barn extension, dung stead and yard extension for machine access.

Local residents were never consulted over plans to build a Veal farm at Brooklands Farm, Stuckton.

One resident, who does not wish to be named, claims neighbours were never told about a veal farm during the consultation and asked how a cash-strapped council can find more than £1m for the farm.

He said: “When the council consulted with residents it described the future use of the farm as being a training farm so that potential future farmers could gain a practical hands-on experience of running a farm.

“At that time of consultation the veal production unit was never mentioned. Now Stuckton village is going to get something completely different to a training farm – a purpose-built, high-intensity veal production farm in the middle of the village.

"The building work on the yard plus planned work and the land purchase by the council must be in the region of £2.25m – a lot of money for a cash-strapped council.

“I believe that there will be a big increase in large vehicle movements. There will be a large movement of waste products and a large amount of foodstuffs brought in by large lorries. Traffic volume will increase significantly putting pressure on the villages single track roads.

“There will be a fairly fast rotation of stock, with young calves being brought in at about two to four weeks old and then the older calf of about 24 weeks old being taken away to the slaughter house."

Not only is there an animal welfare issue to consider in that, due to being nothing but a "waste" product of the Dairy industry, the calves will be forcibly removed from their mothers, raised and sent to slaughter by 24 weeks old, but residents fear that their lives will be blighted by odour, flooding and waste from the high-intensity veal farm.

The veal industry is incredibly cruel and with more and more people adopting a cruelty free lifestyle we feel that building more veal farms are inhumane and unnecessary. These plans are certainly not in keeping with the New Forest's traditional way of life.

Link to story:

http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/11820185.Villagers____fury_over_plans_for_veal_farm/