In August 2026, Wiltshire Council reportedly agreed to quash its previous approval for an inland salmon factory farm following a High Court judicial review challenge in England.
The local authority had initially greenlit plans in March 2026 to convert a former site used for captive trouts near Downton into an intensive facility for salmons. However, campaign group Communities Against Factory Farming (CAFF) legally challenged the decision. CAFF brought forward three main arguments in their application: that the council neglected to perform an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) without giving reasons, failed to evaluate the consequences of sludge from the faeces of salmons, and completely ignored the well-being of the animals.
It was argued that the facility would require substantial quantities of chemicals, which, along with sludge and biological waste, risked entering the River Avon Special Area of Conservation. Following the legal claim, lawyers at Leigh Day confirmed that Wiltshire Council informed the claimants it would overturn its authorisation for the infrastructure due to its failure to conduct an EIA.
Ricardo Gama, partner at Leigh Day solicitors representing CAFF, said, “In this claim for judicial review, CAFF argued that planners had failed to take into account the welfare of the salmon, as well as the significant environmental impacts of the scheme. This is in spite of very clear recent case law that those impacts must be assessed for intensive agricultural schemes such as this.”
Maya Pardo, legal coordinator at CAFF, said, “The application was missing key documents, so failed to prove that rivers, air quality and animal welfare could be protected. Something as huge as this industrial mega development should not have been decided by one person. It is therefore a huge relief that the council has now acknowledged its error and stopped this intensive fish farm expanding.”
