Planning hitch for Wiltshire salmon farm project

According to reports in the local press, Wiltshire Council had received more than 1,000 objections to the planning application submitted by Avon Valley Salmon (previously, Coldwater Salmon) against 70 submissions in favour.

Avon Valley wants to convert the former Trafalgar Fisheries trout farm in Downton, near Salisbury, into a grow-out salmon farm. As part of the development, the company had secured planning consent for a large steel and PVC canopy to cover 3,240 square metres of existing fish ponds.

The deciding factor in the council’s change of mind appears to be the lack of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The application is now on hold while an EIA can be prepared.

Julian Connor, founder and CEO at Avon Valley Salmon, told Fish Farmer: "We view this as a small technical hiccup and we will certainly be submitting our EIA when required to do so."

Campaigners objecting to the salmon farm say that there is a strong risk that waste and nutrients from the farm could be discharged into the River Avon, with catastrophic consequences for wild fish and other wildlife.

The company has said that its proposed wastewater treatment plan would not, in fact, discharge into the Avon. It has also stressed that it has already submitted a detailed environmental report to Natural England, the environmental regulator.

Maya Pardo, legal coordinator at Communities Against Factory Farming (CAFF), told the Salisbury Journal: "It was deeply irresponsible of Wiltshire Council to approve this new type of industrial exploitation without properly assessing how the River Avon might be affected.

"An intensive on-land fish farm could spell death for the Avon, with chemicals and waste flowing into bodies of water that are already in poor health because of all the waste and sludge from factory farming.

"The application was missing key documents, so it failed to prove that rivers, air quality and animal welfare could be protected.

"Something as huge as this industrial mega development should not have been decided by one person.

"It is therefore a huge relief that the council has now acknowledged its error and stopped this intensive fish farm expanding."

This story was updated 6 August 2026 to include Avon Valley’s reponse.