Baiada Poultry Out Street facility gains approval from Tamworth Regional Council to increase daily processing from 120,000 birds to 140,000

Baiada Poultry has been given the tick of approval from Tamworth Regional Council to increase the daily processing limit at its Out Street facility from 120,000 birds to 140,000 birds a day.

The company applied to council for the increase in June, stating the additional capacity would assist with the growth and transition to Oakburn, near Bective, which would have the capacity to process three million chickens a week.

Out Street is set to close once expansions are complete at the Oakburn facility but building delays left the company with no other option but to maximise the use of the Out Street facility in the meantime.

The approval means there will be 16 B-double truck movements each day, it's said these will occur in daylight working hours in the early afternoon with no extra staff required.

The increase also means the operating hours of the facility will change, with an extra two-and-a-half hours processing time a day required for the number of birds.

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Under the approval, the company will be required to undertake noise monitoring within 10 days when daily processing exceeds 120,000 birds and within 24 hours when 140,000 birds are processed.

The Environmental Protection Authority may also require the company to implement an odour monitoring program if any complaints are lodged about the Out Street facility.

But when the development application was submitted to council in June, Baiada Poultry's chief risk officer Elaine Dickson said in the Environmental Impact Statement the biodiversity and infrastructure impacts would be minimal.

"Within the last seven years of operation there has only been a single reported odour complaint which was quickly resolved in January 2020," Ms Dickson wrote.

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