We have issued a new environmental permit to Davidstow Creamery

Thank you to everyone who responded to our consultation on the draft environmental permit and draft decision document.

We have now issued a new environmental permit to Dairy Crest Ltd (part of Saputo Dairy UK). This matters because it strengthens how we protect the River Inny from pollution, and protect local people from noise and odour. The permit brings together the operator’s proposed changes and our own, including tighter controls on what can be discharged to the river.

We received 14 responses to the consultation and considered each one carefully. We have set out how we addressed your concerns in the decision document.

Many of you raised concerns about plans to increase cheese production. We recognise these concerns, especially given the site’s environmental performance before 2024. We have acted on this.

We have added a pre-operational condition to the permit. The operator must meet this requirement before any increase in production. Specifically, they must demonstrate that the effluent treatment plant will continue to operate effectively as they increase production. They must review the early warning systems for the effluent treatment plant, including their equipment, monitoring and procedures. The aim is to spot problems early and prevent permit breaches.

The operator must submit a report to us for approval. Where they find gaps, they must set out clear improvement plans and timelines.

We will only allow production to increase once we are satisfied that these conditions are met. This would allow production to rise from 9.6 tonnes to 11.4 tonnes per hour.

Dairy Crest have also made improvements at the effluent plant which have successfully reduced odour pollution; we haven’t received any incident reports of odour since October 2025.

Additionally, they have already completed several improvements to reduce noise levels, and their new permit requires them to actively explore options to minimise noise through a Noise Management Plan.

You can download the final permit and decision document here: PL32 9XW, Dairy Crest Limited: environmental issued - EPR/BN6137IK/V013 - GOV.UK