Soft-fruit grower EC Drummond & Son has landed a “common sense” victory after a High Court decision against polytunnels erected on its farm in Herefordshire was overturned.
The Court of Appeal overturned the earlier ruling against the NFU, which acted as intervener in the case because of its potential impact on horticulture nationally, which said the decision is “great news and a victory for common sense”.
The case originated from a legal challenge brought by a Wye Valley action group, which objected to the original approval granted by Herefordshire Council to Homme Farm, near Ross-on-Wye,
The action group won in the High Court on the grounds that the council had made an “error of law” in failing to carry out an environmental impact assessment, which they said was required as the site lay in a “semi-natural area”.
The union was concerned that the High Court had found that the site, which had been under soft-fruit and arable rotation for many years, was a semi-natural area as a matter of law because it falls in an area of outstanding natural beauty and is adjacent to other areas under statutory designations.
NFU planning policy adviser Ivan Moss told freshinfo: “Growers will still need to get planning permission for their polytunnels, but it is now quite clear that semi-natural has a very restricted meaning and does not include land that has been farmed for the past 20-30 years.”
The union has worked hard with industry body British Summer Fruits for several years to ensure that planning decisions are looked at locally and that compromise decisions between growers and residents are reached.
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