RESIDENTS who campaigned against plans for a duck farm which would house thousands of birds have won a reprieve.Mid Suffolk District Council has been considering whether to grant planning permission for the duck rearing building at The Green, Mendlesham.

RESIDENTS who campaigned against plans for a duck farm which would house thousands of birds have won a reprieve.

Mid Suffolk District Council has been considering whether to grant planning permission for the duck rearing building at The Green, Mendlesham.

The building would have housed 12,000 mature ducks and angry families feared smells and extra lorries on the roads would blight their quality of life.

A spokeswoman for the district council confirmed that the application has been withdrawn.

Andrew Stringer, the Green district councillor who represents Mendlesham, said: “I am glad that the original application has been withdrawn, people were worried about the extra road traffic, and that the existing access was not the best.

“There was also zero landscaping or planting of new trees or bushes to screen the site and there was the issue of its proximity to people's homes.

“The feeling in the village was vehement opposition, there were up to 50 people who turned out to the public meeting and a quite heated debate.”

A spokesman for the consultants acting for applicant Allward and Son from Surrey had said that any smells would only have been significant when the units were cleaned out, and similar operations elsewhere have not had problems with odours.

He argued that the overall number of lorries would not have been significant and that the building would not significantly intrude on the landscape, or damage people's quality of life to any real extent.

A spokeswoman for Allward and Son was yesterday unable to clarify the reason for withdrawal of the original application.

Mid Suffolk District Council said that a new application along similar lines has been prepared for the council to consider, but has yet to be registered with the authority.