Kirkenel Orchards, a fruit farm near Ludlow in Shropshire, has been given permission to house up to 70 East European strawberry pickers in caravans during the summer months.

The company, at Lower Plowsters, produces 240 tonnes of strawberries a season. Local media has reported the decision as meaning workers from former Eastern Bloc countries will be in one of the district's quietest villages, Ashford Carbonel, throughout the spring and summer picking season.

Migrant strawberry pickers are also employed at other sites in the region, including S&A Produce, near Leominster, which employs around 1,000 people on special Government-backed schemes.

But unlike the Ashford scheme, that plant has run into difficulty and been opposed by local residents.

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