PLANS which would have seen a new butchers built at a farm in an Essex village have been thrown out by the council.

Farming company FJ Bosworth and Sons was looking to build the new site on land south of Spains Hall Road, in Willingale.

FJ Bosworth and Sons is a long-standing family farming business, based at Spains Hall, near Ongar, which launched in 1934.

The business is currently managed by Stuart and Jack Bosworth, whose main enterprises focus on pigs and arable farming.

The application submitted to the council outlined proposals for a new butchery on land south of Spains Hall Road.

A planning statement says the business would require a “modular facility constructed with a capacity of 24 pig carcasses”.

The facility would also include an entrance room, hygiene room, toilet, goods chiller room, intake lobby and production room.

In addition to the butchery building and main contents, such as the chillers, meat rail system, shelving, wash equipment and worktables, the business would also need to purchase long-life machinery required for packaging and further processing.

A planning statement says it had been a “long ambition” of the business to “gain more control over some of their produce through the supply chain from farm to consumer”.

It continued: “At present, pigs are sent off to an abattoir and the applicant has little to no control over the choice on what products are made from the pork, where the products end up, how many miles the food may travel between leaving the farm and ending up being consumed.

“The applicant is committed to reducing the miles the produce travels from start to finish, ensuring the products produced from the pork have as little environmental impact and carbon footprint as possible.

“As part of this, the applicant wishes to be in control of the price the business receives for their products and the price the consumer has to pay in order to eat good quality British pork.”

It also said the new butchers would generate “much more revenue than the business does at present” and would “allow for more family members to make a living from the family farm”.

Despite this, the plans were refused by Epping Forest Council.