Polytunnel plan gets green light

8:00am Friday 29th August 2008

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ONE of the county’s biggest soft fruit growers has been given the go-ahead to continue with polytunnels near Ross-on-Wye.

EC Drummond and Sons, based at Homme Farm, HomGreen, submitted an application for a 10-year plan of the rotational use of polytunnels for soft fruit production.

At the southern area planning sub-committee meeting last Wednesday, planning officers were given delegated powers to approve the application.

The 377-hectare site is within the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) but only 225 hectares will be used.

At any one time, 54 hectares will be covered in tunnels with a limit of 10 hectares on the coverage in any single block of tunnels.

The polytunnels, with a height of around three metres, will be covered with clear polythene during the harvesting period, but from November to January it will be removed.

The firm said its business impact on the local economy was £26 million and stated it employed 17 full-time workers and 450 seasonal workers.

The company added that if polytunnels were not used, the soft fruit enterprise would cease and the local business impact would be reduced by £6 million.

In March, EC Drummond and Sons carried out a public consultation.

The Wye Valley AONB partnership expressed concern about the scale and landscape impact of the scheme and the Wye Valley Tourism Association urged refusal.

Herefordshire Council’s public rights of way manager insisted that no polytunnels could be erected within two metres of public footpaths.

But, despite the application site being to the north of Goodrich Castle, English Heritage had no formal objections.

Eighty-one letters of support from customers and suppliers, and a further 101 letters of support were submitted.

There were also 95 letters of objection.

Objections included the plans causing harm to the AONB and the adverse impact on tourism.

Supportive comments included the appreciation of the importance of polytunnels to local farmers, and the point that maintenance of the countryside was down to a viable farming industry.