Further knockback to polytunnels plan

The latest bid by a large Herefordshire fruit grower to expand polytunnel production in the county has been knocked back.

Angus Davison, founder and chairman of Ledbury-based Haygrove, applied in March to increase the area of polytunnel-grown fruits on two fields at the company’s Huntington site near Kington and the Welsh border.

A statement with his application said approving its “is essential to the operation and to local employment and the local economy”, and pointed out that Haygrove “currently employs over 100 local workers”.

The polytunnels would protect blueberry bushes and cherry trees, already planted, from frost at blossom time, reduce fruit cracking and increase yield, it explained.

But the fate of previous planning bids at the site did not augur well for this latest plan.

A similar “part-retrospective” bid for up to 6.5 hectares of polytunnels at the farm was refused last October, along with a concurrent plan, again part-retrospective, to install 18 mobile homes for seasonal farm workers alongside.

A second attempt to gain permission for the caravans was refused in late May this year.

Huntington Parish Council again objected “most strongly” to Mr Davison’s latest bid, which it claimed was “almost identical” to the previously refused polytunnels plan.

It would “put extreme pressure on the narrow local roads which have already suffered significantly” from the existing fruit polytunnels, which have “already adversely affected Huntington’s high quality and valued rural landscape”.

Further additions would also “have a devastating effect on local Heritage sites such as Huntington Castle as well as the village itself”, the local councillors said.

Neighbouring Brilley parish council also objected, as did 24 individuals.

Despite changes to the layout during the consultation process to make the application more acceptable, the council’s senior landscape officer Nigel Koch said his “objection in relation to visual harm still stands”, while historic buildings and ecology officers also maintained their objections.

Planning officer Adam Lewis has now refused the latest application on grounds of landscape, habitat and heritage impact, and a failure to demonstrate “nutrient neutrality” from water run-off.