Last Welsh abattoir forced to drop more customers (From Western Telegraph)

Last Welsh abattoir forced to drop more customers

Cattle reared in Pembrokeshire will have to be slaughtered in England from this week because the only Welsh abattoir available to the county's beef producers has shut its doors to all but 20 livestock units a week.

Meat sold by Pembrokeshire businesses including Yerbeston Gate Farm Shop and Welsh Hook Meat is processed at Tregaron Abattoir.

This slaughterhouse is only licenced for low throughput - 20 cattle or 200 sheep a week - but has been slaughtering up to 100 cattle a week for several months.

Plant operator Huw Evans stepped into the breach after Oriel Jones and Sons withdrew cattle slaughtering facilities at its Llanybydder abattoir while others switched to the Over-Thirty Months Scheme.

It was an important service for businessmen like Ray Hughes, of Yerbeston Gate Farm Shop, near Loveston.

"The service has been first class, I couldn't fault it,'' said Mr Hughes. "From a welfare point of view it meant we didn't have to haul the cattle hundreds of miles to England to slaughter.''

But on Wednesday, the Meat Hygiene Service served an improvement notice instructing Mr Evans to comply with the conditions of his licence. He has now shelved plans for a £150,000 expansion and immediately reverted to low throughput slaughter.

Mr Evans admitted he had been 'running the gauntlet' for 12 months. The improvement notice, which could lead to prosecution if he fails to comply, left him with no alternative but to turn his customers away. "I had been taking up the slack and everyone was quite happy about that,'' he said.

"If I had followed through my expansion plans, the Meat Hygiene Service would probably have allowed me to carry on for the interim.''

But he has taken a commercial decision not to expand because of problems associated with waste disposal.

It means that users like Pembrokeshire NFU county chairman, Brian Ratcliffe, who supplies four butchers with cattle every week, will have to transport stock to an abattoir in the Forest of Dean until the Welsh Meat Company's abattoir at Haverfordwest opens.

"The Government promotes traceabilty and local slaughtering of livestock but here we have a Government agency forcing the withdrawal of this facility,'' he said.

The Meat Hygiene Service defended its decision. A spokesman said it had formally served an improvement notice instructing Mr Evans to comply with the conditions of his licence following repeated discussions.

"Ultimately, if there is no move to comply we could eventually seek formal action,'' he said.

He pointed out that the Meat Hygiene Service had stepped up supervision levels at the plant when throughput had increased.