A FARMER has failed in his bid to get charges relating to the death of 24,000 chickens thrown out.

Paul Flatman, 64, the owner of Colchester’s Jumbo water tower, will stand trial next year after denying 11 charges.

The charges include failing in his duty to ensure animal welfare and causing unnecessary suffering to animals.

Flatman, of Church Road, Wormingford, was running a poultry farm in Great Leighs, in August 2012, when Essex Trading Standards visited.

Officers found up to 24,000 chickens had suffered a form of heat stroke and had died.

Flatman, who bought Colchester’s Jumbo water tower at auction for £190,000 in May, applied for the Trading Standards prosecution to be dropped when he appeared at Colchester Magistrates’ Court.

He argued the prosecution should have been started within six months of Trading Standards’ first visit. Essex Trading Standards instigated its prosecution in April last year, eight months after its first visit.

After a day of legal argument, District Judge John Woollard ruled Trading Standards officers had acted within the correct timeframe, given there was confusion over who whether Flatman, the individual, or Paul Flatman Ltd, was responsible for the farm.

The trial will take place next year.