A full planning application has now been submitted to the council by Shropshire based Pickstock Telford who supply British beef all around the globe.
They have earmarked a site next to the B7076 at Junction 19 of the A74(M), on the edge of the village, for the major development.
Their planning statement notes how the slaughterhouse would operate five days a week, receive and undertake primary processing of 200 to 250 cattle each day and employ up to 60 full time workers.
About half of the employees would work on the process lines, with others undertaking a range of roles in engineering, IT, administration and cleaning.
The processing plant would be operational 24-hours a day but expected to run five days a week, with core processing hours between 6 am and 4 pm and a backshift hygiene team working from 5 pm to 3 am.
In their statement overview, Pickstock said: “The business has modern processing facilities at its headquarters location in Telford (Shropshire) and requires a processing facility in Scotland to handle
livestock reared in Scotland and the border regions.
“Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Local Development Plan 2 allocates about 11 hectares of land at Ecclefechan for business and industry development.
“The site is capable of accommodating Pickstock’s need for a plant of 4,451 sqm together with supporting installations taking up about 3.1 hectares.”
The firm recently finished a 12 week pre-application public consultation where residents from Ecclefechan and the surrounding communities were invited to view the proposed plans and provide feedback.
Two sessions at the village hall were attended by over 70 members of the public. Of those who logged feedback forms, only one ‘agreed’ to the statement – “I am generally in favour of the proposed development” – while 16 disagreed.
A variety of issues were raised, the most frequent concerns being surface water flood risk, exacerbating existing local problems; the impact of HGVs on the road network and village environment; potential adverse noise impact; odour risk from the plant, its effluent treatment plant and anaerobic digester; adequacy of landscaping and visibility of the development; and potential impact on Haggs recreation ground.
Pickstock responded to these concerns in the first consultation summary, saying: “The planning application will include a flood risk assessment and drainage strategy.
“There are no concerns with the capacity of the local highway network and the A74(M) to accommodate development traffic.
“Most traffic visiting the proposed development would use A74(M) junction 19. Pickstock would ensure their refrigerated HGVs do not to travel through Ecclefechan.
“The development would not be a significant source of odour. There will be ordinary farmyard type odour.
“The Pickstock building is located away from the recreation ground at the western extreme of the allocated development land.
“The draft planting plan displayed at the consultation event is being reviewed to ensure adequate structural planting is shown.”
Annandale North councillor Stephen Thompson said: “There has been interest for some time from the local community on the proposals and it has been discussed at the community council.
“Now that the application has been published people will be able to have their say and have their representations considered as part of the planning process.”
