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Farming polytunnels unlawful, says judge
Last updated at 23:52pm on 15.12.06
Unlawful: Polytunnels are a blight on the landscape
The rural blight of plastic 'polytunnels' that allow farmers to grow strawberries year-round is unlawful, a High Court judge has ruled.
To the delight of countryside campaigners, Mr Justice Sullivan said the miles of tunnels erected over Britain's fruit fields needed to have planning permission.
For good measure, he added that caravans parked in fields for migrant workers needed planning permission too.
Growers warned of dire consequences for British farmers and said imported produce would appear on the shelves to appease consumers' demand for soft fruit whatever the season.
Residents have waged a long campaign against the 'pastures of plastic' created by the ugly tunnels blotting vast swathes of land. MP Bill Wiggin, a rising star of David Cameron's frontbench, warned recently that eating strawberries out of season was ruining the British countryside.
The polythene tunnels allow farmers to extend their growing season well beyond the traditional six-week season, resulting in a booming industry worth £200million.
Until now, farmers have avoided planning rules because they have argued the tunnels are classed as temporary structures.
But a test case was brought to the High Court by the Hall Hunter Partnership, which owns Tuesley Farm, which is on green belt land near Godalming, Surrey, and last year had 60 hectares of land covered by tunnels.
The farm owners had lost a planning inquiry in December last year and wanted the High Court to overturn the decision of the planning inspector, who ruled that erecting polytunnels amounted to 'development' under the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act and therefore required planning permission.
Timothy Straker, for the farm, argued the plastic tunnels were 'an agricultural use of land' and a 'permitted development' which meant planning permission was not required.
He claimed the tunnels could not be described as 'buildings' under the planning rules as they did not have a sufficient degree of permanence. They were a 'moving feast', he said, as they were erected on a rotational basis according to where a crop was growing, and did not alter the land.
In contrast, a 'building' needing planning permission was 'something that has a fixed place in time and space', argued Mr Straker.
But the judge rejected all the grounds of challenge, saying the inspector had made no error of law.
And he upheld the inspector's decision that stationing some 45 caravans on the farm for hundreds of seasonal workers was also not a permitted development.
From January 1, 2007, all growers will be required to comply with the new rules.
Tim Harrold, chairman of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (Surrey), said: 'We are absolutely delighted, and we will be celebrating the ruling with local residents and the wider community.
'I personally think it is a wonderful result because people have stood up and been counted defending some of the most important countryside we have.
'It is not unreasonable to expect landowners to obtain planning consent.'
But the National Farmers' Union expressed 'extreme disappointment' at the landmark judgment.
The union's horticulture board chairman Richard Hirst said: 'The use of Spanish polytunnels by the British soft fruit industry is absolutely vital in allowing growers to provide consumers with the quality product they have come to expect.
'We are very concerned. The industry has shown it is sensitive to concerns raised by members of the public by developing a national code of practice for the use of all types of polytunnels in the soft fruit industry.'
British Summer Fruits, the organisation representing growers who supply 92 per cent of UK soft and stone fruit, also expressed concern.
Chairman Laurence Olins said: 'Polytunnels, which are used for protecting berries from our inclement weather, cover a mere 0.01 per cent of UK agricultural land.
'If UK growers are unable to meet the increasing consumer demand for berries then imported fruit will appear on supermarket shelves during our summer season.'
Growers claim the tunnels reduce the use of herbicides and pesticides by 50 per cent and banning them would allow Spanish strawberries to flood the £96million UK market.
Reader views (10)
Having grown many of my crops on a small scale in poly tunnels for years and having to do without them in the last couple of years, I lament the days gone by of protected, year round and early cropping of many fruits and vegetables and herbs. Wherever in the world you live the emphasis is now on local production and consumption of produce. The endless over sprayed and mono-cropped acres of fields you pass travelling through England and the dying out of heritage hedge rows are much more of a blight on the countryside and a disturbance to the eco-system, than a polytunnel could ever be. But what would a high Court judge know about protected cropping in a crop friendly environment, and how much interest would he have in trying to make a living while attempting to provide quality products through hard labour? Arbitrary over-regulation? Quite so!
- Alexandra, Abbotsford, Canada
It is my observation that the UK is fundamentally over-regulated in an absolutely arbitrary manner. I recommend that every UK citizen view the recently released movie "V for Vendetta". Perhaps then, the sheeple will awaken.
- Ed Ebert, Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA
Damn those farmers! Serves them right! They've had it too easy for too long, what with their low taxes and cheap labor and huge profits. What made them think they could do something like that on private property? Don't they know they're spoiling the view? And after all, what's more important? Making a living and providing jobs, or having a nice view?
- Steve Seech, Leamington, Ontario, Canada
Attach wheels to the ends of the poles that are inserted into the ground. This then qualifies as a moving structure, such as a utility trailer. I say this as these days, one cannot have their cake and it it too. No windmills on the landscape, no polytunnels. Consider the carbon savings with windmills and carbon savings by having softfruits grown in the UK instead of Europe where there would be carbon emissions associated with their transport into the UK. We have to consider a trade-off between "blights on the landscape" and their benefit in reducing global warming and the perils of various beautiful beachscapes and their certain doom as the result of rising sea levels due to global warming.
- Dr George Alexander, Vancouver, Canada
There has been in the course of history always two sides to a coin, in this case, the beautiful natural landscape verses the needs to produce large quantities of affordable produce. The potential loss of 200milliion/year in economic income from only one sector of agriculture is nothing to sneeze at, it provides jobs, affordable produce for the masses, taxable revenue I presume, at a time when a country, for the past couple of years, is in a serious economic recession, MUST be considered!
The other side of the coin is that without some modicum of order, events tend to become even more disordered and one of the great resources the isles have is it's natural beauty.
The error that the Honorable Justice Sullivan made was what is termed here in the states, "a knee-jerk reaction and a quick band-aid fix".
- Emmett L. Butler, Iowa City,Iowa, USA
The judge is nuts. He doesn't allow farmers to practice modern, efficient agricultural techniques on their own land. The judge would prefer the land be poisoned by more pesticides and herbicides rather than than allow the practice of efficient agriculture and farmers lose an important cash crop than ignore the complaints of nonfarmers who find the polytunnels esthetically lacking.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but everyone has to eat. The farmers should be allowed to practice agriculture to the best af their abilities. What ever happened to individual rights, property rights? Life, liberty, property.
- Stanley Fix, United States
Income sources should be protected and made a top priority.
- Patrick Sullivan, Des Moines, IA, USA
You have to wonder at the sanity of those who put others out of work for their own pleasure.
- Mr Ison, Dunstable Bedfordshire
Just because you pay taxes on property does not mean you own it. There is no private property if the state can prevent agricultural uses which city -people- moved- to -the- country consider unsightful. When you are out of work and hungry, eat an enviromentalist.
- Rick Montanari, Pueblo, CO USA
I guess that these polytunnels are the equivelant of caravan parks that stretch along our beautiful coastlline, creating a very ugly glistening vista.
- Maggie Snook, Wool , Dorset
