Herefordshire fruit growers have reportedly held crisis talks with their local council after they were told they would have to apply for planning permission to put up polytunnels.
Council officials are thought to have used the recent Hall Hunter decision as a precedent to force the growers down a legislative route. The voluntary code of practice had previously been used.
The council’s legal practice manager, Kevin O’Keefe, was quoted in local press reports as saying: “The law relating to polytunnels has now crystallised. The judge has given a clear indication that polytunnels of the magnitude within that case are development, requiring planning permission.”
Herefordshire has been the venue for a long-standing battle over the role of polytunnels in the countryside, with Conservative MP Bill Wiggin having publicly criticised the structures and called for firm regulations to be put into place.
See next week’s Commercial Grower for more.
