A further 7.2 hectares (18 acres) of polytunnels on a Herefordshire farm have been approved – despite worries about their visual impact and water run-off from them.
The bid by Cobrey Farms, of Coughton, south of Ross-on-Wye, will extend the existing area under polytunnels on the farm onto what is currently ploughed fields, and also includes three ponds to retain rainwater.
The 59 tunnels, each 4.5m high (15 feet) and 9.15m (30 feet) wide, will be used to grow early and late season fruit in pots, and will have their covers removed between the start of November and end of January.
Lying just outside the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), the site slopes down to the Castlebrook stream (also referred to as the Coughton Brook), within the catchment of the River Wye Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
The Herefordshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England said the “cumulative adverse visual impact” of the tunnels should have required an Environmental Impact Assessment.
And the local Walford Parish Council said it was “unable to support” the application due to concerns over potential flooding.
“The ponds proposed only deal with the average flow rates, and would probably be better sized for the extremes of severe rainfall we now seem to be more regularly subjected to,” it said.
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But a flood risk assessment commissioned for the bid said the development would be appropriate as it would be within the Environment Agency’s Flood Zone 1, classed as least likely to flood.
With its measures to retain rainwater, the development would actually be an improvement over the current land use, it said.
Planning officer Heather Carlisle concluded that the tunnels “can operate within the landscape without proving prejudicial to the landscape character of the area or pose an increased risk of flooding elsewhere”.
“The economics benefits are accepted and the proposed polytunnels will not impact upon any neighbouring dwelling or on highway safety,” she said.
Planning permission for up to 173 mobile homes for seasonal farm workers on the farm was granted in 2009 and extended in 2020 for a further 15 years.
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