Chris Parker will put a free ranging idea to tonight’s meeting that the council outlaw caged eggs in its catering, and encourage other businesses to do the same.

The Greens councillor said it was an issue he was passionate about because he had seen the consequences of battery cage operations.

He said Europe was leading the world on the issue, with a European Union commitment to ban the production of caged eggs by 2012.

In Australia, Randwick, Sydney, North Sydney and Leichhardt councils had introduced similar policies.

“We believe (caged egg operations) are cruel and unnecessary,” Cr Parker said.

“A lot of times we’ve ended up with battery hens that we’ve rehabilitated and given them a new life.

“We had one chicken that had been pecked so severely you could see her heart beating inside her chest.

“A lot of people would have said put her down, but we recognised in her a will to live and she has recovered.”

Cr Parker said the council had a role to play in outlawing caged egg operations as a leader in the community.

“The practice of producing eggs from such cruel and inhumane conditions has been recognised for some time and Cessnock City Council would be sending the proper message to all residents if the motion were to be adopted,” he said in the motion.

Maitland Mayor Peter Blackmore said there had been no approaches to Maitland City Council to implement a similar policy.

He said it was not an issue in which local government should be involved.

“I don’t think this is worth councils getting scrambled over,” he said.

“I think this is best to be consumer driven.”

But Maitland Greens spokeswoman Jan Davis said the organisation supported Cr Parker, and would like to see a similar policy introduced in Maitland.

“We should look at it,” she said.

“If we had a Greens councillor (on Maitland City Council), we’d be trying to do the same.”