Polytunnels will play a crucial role in efforts to produce more in the horticultural sector while impacting less – of that nobody at this week’s Fruit Focus forum event was in any doubt.
Yet that faith is often stretched to the limit in an environment in which the contrasting forces of the government’s localism mantra and its desire for ‘sustainable growth’ pull the planning process in opposite directions, often pitting the powers of nimby-ism against food production. Factor in a cost of at least £60,000 per planning application and it was just as well that those attending the UK’s largest soft fruit and viticulture show, at East Malling Research, in Kent, on Wednesday, could draw on some hard-won NFU experience.
Advisor Ivan Moss set a scene of “huge upheaval in planning regulation” in which the drift was from regional to neighbourhood decision-making.
“For farmers it’s a very depressing prospect in some ways, but there’s a big ‘but’, because as well as the localism agenda, the government has put economic growth at the heart of its policy-making. That’s been made fundamental – that the planning system is there to ensure growth.”
So how can applicants ensure that growth holds the trump card?
“Bribery…no, sorry, ‘incentives’,” said the man from the NFU. It was a joke, but only just. Mr Moss pointed to a recent Prime Minister’s Questions answer on wind farms in which David Cameron seemed to suggest that local communities should ‘benefit’ from such developments.
“RenewableUK has suggested £1,000 per megawatt of capacity,” noted Mr Moss.
However, such dubious use of resources falls well outside the wallets of most farmers. So what’s left?
One crucial factor will be the success of determined NFU lobbying in ensuring that food production is at the heart of the National Planning Policy Framework – a document that had been expected before the parliamentary recess in July. We’re still waiting, but there’s no doubt about its importance.
“It’s absolutely critical, because local authorities will have to follow it. So if it contains very clear guidance on food production, they will have to take it into account.”
To that end, the NFU has taken civil servants on a fact-finding tour around fruit farms and observed their surprise at the scale of modern ventures and the rural growth they create. It’s lobbied strongly and got a useful fillip when the government’s own Farming Regulation Taskforce recommended that polytunnels should be ‘permitted development’ (a “big ask,” Mr Moss felt).
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| Soft fruit grower Neil Cockburn endured a five-year battle with his local council over polytunnels. Find out more here. |
In the meantime, the NFU is considering getting a protocol agreed with planners on exactly what is required for a polytunnels application, with a view to reducing the costs and ensuring that details with “absolutely no relevance”, such as requests for information about pesticide use, are not considered.
And while we wait for the big stick of the planning framework, there are still smaller tools that the grower applicant can use to shift the balance, Mr Moss continued. And the first of these is engagement.
“Get your retaliation in first – go to the parish council and put all your benefits down,” he advised.
“Show that polytunnels are not a luxury, but essential for your business and explain exactly what you want to do. You can’t just walk into local authority and say ‘here’s my application, can I have permission in six to eight weeks?’.”
At the risk of encouraging only a vocal minority of attendees, it may also be worth holding open days ahead of council decisions, he added.
“And the environment can be a big, big plus for you. There’s always odd corners you can use for environmental benefit, so really hammer that,” said Mr Moss, holding aloft the sector-specific brochure for the Campaign for the Farmed Environment.”
It’s also vital that members make the most of their subscription by drawing on the NFU’s resources, especially after success in recent key cases in Surrey, Herefordshire and Kent. Click here to find out more.
View our pictures from the Fruit Focus event here.
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