A producer is planning to invest £8million into a new, carbon-neutral, free range egg farm with space for more than 190,000 hens.

Cranbrook-based Fridays, which employs almost 300 people in the county, is applying for permission to build the new farm south of Maidstone .

It says it hopes to build Wealden Woods Free Range Farm on land at Reed Court Farm at Chainhurst, near the village of Hunton.

It would comprise of three hen houses - each capable of accommodating up to 64,000 chickens and producing some 60million free range eggs a year.

It also plans to build some 36,000 trees to create 20 hectares of new woodland and woodland pasture.

Five years ago, the firm pulled plans for a 64,000 hen facility in Horsmonden amid welfare concerns raised by Tonbridge charity Animal Aid and opposition from locals.

The family-owned producers also propose to create a new public access route along the River Beult to the north of the farm, by applying to re-route various public rights of way.

Graham Fuller, production manager at Fridays, said: “Like our other nearby free range farms, we will operate to the highest standards of animal welfare and our approach has been praised by the highly respected organisation Compassion in World Farming.

“If approved, we will be able to plant 36,000 trees, which is more three times the number of trees at the National Pinetum at Bedgebury.”

Alongside the tree planting, the hen houses will be fitted with solar panels. The aim is for the operation of the Wealden Woods free range farm to be carbon neutral.

Manure produced by the hens would be removed twice a week by conveyor belt direct to a covered trailer and removed from the site.

Mr Fuller added: “To improve our environmental performance, the manure would be transported to an anaerobic digestion facility at nearby Knoxbridge Farm, near Staplehurst, which will produce odourless compost and bio-gas.”

Fridays is looking to submit a planning application to Maidstone Borough Council later this year.

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