Lille (AFP)
The farm Picardy said "1,000 cows" will bring his herd to 500 cattle instead of the 800 currently exploited and pay penalties for exceeding "59%" the size determined by the state, according to a judgment of the Administrative Court appeal of Douai.
Contacted by AFP, the operator's lawyer Pierre-Étienne Bodart announced his intention to appeal in cassation.
The judgment of the Court of Appeal, rendered in late November and consulted Thursday by AFP, cancels a decision of first instance of 2017 that allowed the farm operator, the SCEA "Coast of Justice", to increase the number of dairy cows on this giant farm located in Drucat, near Abbeville (Somme), and canceled the financial penalties imposed by the prefecture for not respecting the threshold of 500 animals set by the authorization decree initial of 2013.
In 2015, the SCEA informed the prefecture that it wanted "to gather on its site other farms to reach a total of 880 cows" then, without return of the authorities, had raised his livestock to 796 cattle. The administrative court had considered in 2017 that the lack of response from the prefecture, within two months, was implicit authorization.
But according to the Court of Appeal, seized by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, "the silence kept for two months by the prefect (...) did not give rise to an implicit decision of acceptance" and neither the decree of formal notice, nor the penalties imposed "are illegal".
"The fine of 7,800 euros and the penalty of 780 euros per day until the formal notice is complied with are proportionate to the seriousness of the alleged breach", "taking into account the presence on the farm of 796 dairy cows that is, 59% more than the authorized workforce, "the judges said.
According to Pierre-Étienne Bodart, this judgment does not "constrain" the operator to pay penalties: "We always consider that our situation is in accordance with the state of the law." It was up to the administration to make a decision in time. useful and we wait for five years that it decides on applications filed with a complete file (...) and on which the services of the State have pronounced favorably, "he told AFP.
The association Novissen, which fights against the exploitation, was pleased that the justice recognizes "the illegality of this farm-factory", which "will have to pay" fine and strain.
Moreover, in another judgment of 6 December, the administrative court of Amiens rejected several requests from the SCEA, Ramery companies-the financier Ramvert and SCL Lait Pis Carde, which attacked the State.
These companies asked the judges to condemn the State to pay them more than 30 million euros for the "damages" related to the "abnormally long duration" of the instruction of the file of authorization of exploitation and request of building permits filed in prefecture in March 2015.
© 2019 AFP