Work at the site began without planning permission

Fruit grower S&A Produce has already started work on the controversial project at Brierley Court Farm, near Leominster in Herefordshire.

The council is thought to be likely to allow the development to stand, despite widespread local opposition.

S&A wants the site to house 300 mobile homes, a cinema, football pitches, a doctor's surgery and a swimming pool.

The company uses about 2,000 migrants from across Europe during the harvest season.

We have built the amenities before the planning application has been heard but we're not going to benefit Graham Neal S&A managing director

The workers, many of them students, are employed legally under the government's seasonal agricultural workers' scheme.

Hundreds of local people are opposed to both the village and S&A's farming methods.

The company uses temporary plastic-covered greenhouses - known as poly tunnels - to grow its strawberries on a site covering more than 100 acres.

But S&A's managing director Graham Neal said it was only minority who are against the project.

"The people that are based closest to the development at Brierley itself are actually supporting the work that we're doing.

'Sensible' decision expected

"But there are a few people with an awful lot of money who I guess, in some ways, we feel are wishing to hijack the countryside.

"People have to understand that harvesting crops is still a hand exercise which needs people to do that.

"What we're trying to do is accommodate people for a period of 12 weeks where they can enjoy their stay and be looked after and work well for British agriculture."

He said he thought Herefordshire Council would allow the site to stand.

If Herefordshire Council do approve it we'll take it to the secretary of state Campaigner Aubrey Green

"I believe that we will see a sensible decision. What we have done is only within guidelines for planning.

"Yes, I think it's fair to say we have built the amenities before the planning application has been heard, but we're not going to benefit.

"It's a cost exercise for us to provide the entertainment facilities for the students who arrive on 15 May.

"We wanted that to be in place so the students aren't using the facilities of the local town."

Aubrey Green, a campaigner against the site, said: "Our objections concern the scale and the location of this proposed development.

"You can view these poly tunnels from two or three miles away.

"This is not the right location. The poly tunnels should be in a flat area where they're not visible to the surrounding countryside."

He added: "If Herefordshire Council do approve it, we'll take it to the secretary of state."