A DAIRY farmer in Colne is facing prosecution by three agencies over alleged suffering caused to livestock and the alleged state of his milking parlour and cow sheds.

Hygiene officials raided Hubb House Farm, in Knotts Lane, at the end of last January and then again in early February, following concerns raised about the welfare of dairy cows there.

Dairy owner John Leslie Allison, 63, was served with a variety of notices, requiring him to clean his premises, due to problems with a build-up of cow dung and slurry.

The notices were issued by Lancashire County Council, Pendle Council and the Food Standards Agency.

County council trading standards officials have previously summonsed Allison to court over four separate offences.

The first, under the Welfare of Farmed Animal Regulations, covers the conditions which the animal were kept in, between January 7 and 14.

All three of the remaining offences concern causing unnecessary suffering to three separate animals.

Pendle Council has also charged him with 18 offences of failing to comply with food hygiene notices between similar dates.

The borough council’s prosecution will next be heard at Burnley Crown Court on November 2 and the county council case will be heard three days later at the same venue.

The FSA is also prosecuting Allison under the Food Hygiene Regulations 2006.