Judgement Day for Britain’s soft fruit growers
The Fruit Grower magazine, January 2005
Next February, a Planning Inspector will begin hearing an appeal by soft fruit growers Hall Hunter Partnership (HHP) against an enforcement order issued by their local council. According to managing partner Mark Hall, the future of soft fruit production in the UK hangs on the inspector’s decision.
The notice requires HHP to remove the polytunnels it uses to protect its crops at Tuesley Farm near Godalming, Surrey, along with the temporary accommodation for their seasonal workers. “But polytunnels are essential if we and other UK growers are to continue to supply the supermarkets with high quality, domestically-grown berries,” Mark Hall says.
“And it’s not only soft fruit growers that will be affected, because many other crops also depend on polytunnels.”
Lawrence Olins, chairman of British Summer Fruits, points out that berry growers have been very successful over the past few years. “This year, sales were worth £172m, an increase of 15 per cent, setting a new high for the tenth consecutive year,” he says.
“This record, which has been achieved despite abysmal weather in July and August and the distraction of major sporting events such as the European Cup and the Olympics, is entirely due to the use of polytunnels to protect the crops and extend the growing season.”
Mark Hall adds that only one outcome can guarantee a future for the industry. “Unless the inspector concludes that planning consent is not required under current legislation, he will set a precedent that will be acted upon by officials around the country. Then, growers will have to spend massive amounts of time and money dealing with planning applications.”
And there is no guarantee that those applications will be granted because, apart from anything else, a great many ‘interested parties’ will have opportunities to object.
The enforcement notice issued against HHP demonstrates how a small number of activists can influence planning policy, he says. “There’s no doubt that it has been raised at the instigation of a number of people who live near Tuesley Farm and, like Monty Don in Herefordshire, disapprove of polytunnels.”
“This group complains that we are ‘… destroying the rural character of the area during the summer months for everybody…’. They are also making misleading and inaccurate claims about our use of agricultural chemicals, water extraction and seasonal labourers.
Yet Mark’s son Harry Hall, who operates Tuesley Farm, has made every effort to work with local authorities and residents to minimise the impact of its operations while continuing to farm profitably.
“One of the first things we did when we started in 2003 was to draw up a strategic farm plan that includes an environmental scheme designed by FWAG and is supported by local wildlife groups,” says Harry.
“We are planting more than ten kilometres of indigenous hedging and beetle banks, as well as copses and woodland areas that will soon screen the polytunnels from view. And we have done all this with the support of the industry including the NFU, the National Summer Fruits Association, the retailers and many other growers.”
As for water extraction and crop protectants, HHP has recently been granted a licence by the Environment Agency, which does not issue them lightly. HHP views spraying very much as a last resort and is actively involved in researching and trialing alternative, environmentally benign methods for protecting its crops. It has been acknowledged by Biological Crop Protection Ltd, the UK’s leading supplier of beneficial insects, as being “..very much at the forefront of using biological controls to minimise the use of pesticides while still producing top quality soft fruit.”
In addition, a landscape and environmental assessment by an independent horticultural consultant states that Harry is in fact recreating the original, enclosed landscape typical of the area.
It says that “… these [plantings] will result in both the enhancement of the landscape value of the area and also an improvement in the wildlife environment …”. It goes on to note that the views of the local council, which seeks to preserve an open countryside, contrast with a 1997 Surrey County Council report that complained that “… the landscape is in decline with its hedgerows, a key characteristic, being gradually lost through mismanagement and neglect, leading to a more open and large scale countryside”.
The challenge for growers, Mark Hall continues, is to find ways to deal sensitively not just with the environment but with a new population that uses the countryside as an idyllic dormitory. “Our farming methods have changed considerably over the past decade or so, but our neighbours have changed too,” he says. “We need to recognise this and promote farming practices that meet the concerns of the wider community.”
Along with the NFU and other growers, HHP is working towards this goal by building on the ‘code of practice’ for polytunnels and temporary accommodation facilities that was initially developed by South Herefordshire growers.
But the friction between farmers and country-dwelling city workers will not end even if HHP wins the appeal, he concludes. “Unless the industry as a whole gets together and takes a grip on the situation, it’s highly likely that there will be legislation to make agricultural structures such as polutunnels, temporary accommodation, pig arcs and so on subject to planning regulations. This would lead to significant restrictions on farming activities across the country.”
