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Search the Public Notice PortalA large Herefordshire farming group is fighting the refusal of planning permission for a large new apple store in the Herefordshire countryside.
EC Drummond planned to invest around £1 million on the new facility at Tillington fruit farm near Burghill northwest of Hereford, complementing its recent investment in new orchards at the farm.
Covering an area of nearly half an acre and nearly 9 metres high, the building was to have ten separate climate-controlled stores, along with roof-mounted solar panels and rainwater harvesting tanks.
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But Herefordshire Council planners ruled last June that the building would be “at odds with the local landscape character” given its “significant scale and isolated position”.
The farm had also “failed to give adequate consideration” to the impact of goods traffic, particularly on a nearby school, while its proposal would also bring “noise, disturbance and other nuisance” to residents.
EC Drummond has now appealed against this to the Government’s Planning Inspectorate, and a hearing will now be held at Hereford’s Shell Store from January 28.
Chairman Eric Drummond said: “We are investing millions of pounds in a commercial operation that needs this facility, and sincerely hope common sense will prevail.”
He added: “The government wants British farms to grow more, and we hope the planning inspector will take that into account.”
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In its appeal, the farm’s agent says the site is not within or near any designated landscape, nor is it near any scheduled monuments or listed buildings, while the proposal contains “a comprehensive landscaping scheme to provide both screening and measurable levels of biodiversity net gain”.
The farm had also commissioned a specialist noise report on the scheme which showed that planned refrigeration equipment “would not impact residential amenity of the nearest dwellings”, the nearest being 200 metres away.
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But planning officer Adam Lewis “declined to consider this report” in making his decision, the appeal statement says.
“At present the appellant is forced to use an apple cold storage facility in Kent and this is not conducive to minimising food miles,” it adds. Given the traffic this already involves, “the erection of the apple store will not increase vehicle movements at all”.
The farm is also seeking an award of costs of the appeal “in relation to the unreasonable refusal by Herefordshire Council”.
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