A farmer is looking to build a dead animal collection point.

Llyr Jones has applied to Conwy Council for retrospective planning permission to turn his sheep incinerator into a fallen stock collection unit where other farmers can drop off animal carcasses.

Mr Jones who farms at Derwydd, Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr, had built an incinerator to deal with dead sheep but said this was no longer viable. Instead he wants to be able to have farmers drop off dead animals at the site before he sends them on to be properly disposed of.

Officers have recommended that permission for the application be granted.

The original use as an incinerator was consented and implemented in 2005 and successfully ran as a non-profitable organisation. In recent years, the incinerator has become unviable.

A report before councillors on the planning committee said: “Limited resources associated with the project and the cost of fuel and maintaining parts for the incinerator has resulted in it being abandoned since around 2010.

“However, there continued to be a demonstrable need for the disposal of agricultural carcasses in the area and the applicant continued to accept fallen stock and the site operates as a transfer centre.

"This proposal provides a financially sustainable solution for other farmers in the vicinity to dispose of agricultural carcasses in a collection unit.

"A company who uses animal carcasses as a form of fuel in their anaerobic digester collects the carcasses in bulk on a weekly basis to create energy.”

Farmers drop off the dead carcasses into a skip in a farm building, the animals are then sent on a conveyor belt into a sealed skip. Each skip can hold 120 carcasses, with the expectation being that 83 tonnes would be processed in this way.