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Hugh Lowe Farms granted permission for polytunnelsCLA member Hugh Lowe Farms, the 118-year-old soft fruit farm based at Mereworth in Kent has been granted planning permission for the continued use of agricultural polytunnels on its land. The farm, which supplies strawberries, raspberries and blackberries to Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, the official caterers to Wimbledon as well as to this year's Open Golf Championship at Sandwich, has been using polytunnels for a number of years. It applied to Tonbridge and Malling Council to formalise the use of its rotational and successional tunnels over no more than 165 hectares (30 percent) of its land. On Tuesday July 12, members of the Council's Area 2 planning committee voted unanimously to approve the application. Marion Regan, owner of Hugh Lowe Farms, commented after the decision: "We are delighted. The use of polytunnels is essential if our family farm is to continue producing and supplying fruit of the highest quality to our customers. "We have stressed all along that we have not been applying to increase our use of polytunnels but merely to formalise what we already do within the planning system. "Much of Tonbridge and Malling Borough is still rural and I felt the members of the Planning Committee considered the importance of rural jobs, sustainable food production and environmental protection. It was clear from the debate that they understood the way modern methods of farming can help meet those challenges, and the need to balance all of that with the concerns and rights of local residents." Mrs Regan added that the independent economic report commissioned by the Council confirmed the financial and employment benefits the farm brought to the local area and the wider economy as a whole and made clear the impact of not being able to use polytunnels to the extent it did now would have on the commercial viability of the farm. She said the planning officer's report also highlighted the environmental benefits of the way the company farmed. "We are happy that the report took an objective view of our application and that council members recognised that, allowed a balanced debate and then voted to approve it," she said. "We would like to thank all those who supported our application, including the many local people who have written to the council and spoken on our behalf at meetings. "We were very grateful for CLA advice and support from Tim Broomhead and Judith Norris, and Nick Tapp when he was Kent Chairman. Tim Broomhead helped answer concerns from the public at our open day, and gave us sound advice throughout." |
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Tim Broomhead is Regional Surveyor and covers the whole South East region. He is based in the South East office near Andover.
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