Farm group challenges refusal of apple store plant

A farming group is challenging the refusal of planning permission for a large new apple store in the Herefordshire countryside.

EC Drummond plans to spend about £1m on the facility at Tillington fruit farm, near Burghill, after recently investing in new orchards at the farm.

But Herefordshire Council's planning committee ruled in June the building would be "at odds with the local landscape character" given its "significant scale and isolated position", and the firm had "failed to give adequate consideration" to the impact of traffic on a school nearby.

The company's appeal to the government's planning inspectorate is set to be heard at Hereford's Shell Store from 28 January.

The building would cover nearly half an acre and be nearly nine metres high.

It would contain 10 separate climate-controlled stores, along with roof-mounted solar panels and rainwater harvesting tanks.

Councillors had said the proposal would also bring "noise, disturbance and other nuisance" to residents.

The farm group's chairman Eric Drummond said: "We are investing millions of pounds in a commercial operation that needs this facility and sincerely hope common sense will prevail."

He added: "The government wants British farms to grow more and we hope the planning inspector will take that into account."

The appeal statement says the business is "forced to use an apple cold storage facility in Kent and this is not conducive to minimising food miles".

Given the traffic this already involves, "the erection of the apple store will not increase vehicle movements at all".

The site is not within or near any designated landscape, nor is it near any scheduled monuments or listed buildings, it states, and a comprehensive landscaping scheme is proposed.

An agent for the farming group said a specialist noise report showed planned refrigeration equipment would not impact the nearest dwellings, but the planning committee had declined to consider this in its decision.

The farm is also seeking an award of costs of the appeal over what it called "the unreasonable refusal" by Herefordshire Council.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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