A large fruit-growing firm has lost a long planning battle to allow polytunnels and worker caravans at a Herefordshire farm, and now faces enforcement action to have them removed. Ledbury-based Haygrove had two separate planning applications at its Mahollam Road farm, Huntington near Kington refused by Herefordshire Council last year, following strong opposition locally.
This was despite it having already planted up the two fields, totalling seven hectares, with blueberry bushes and dwarf cherry trees, and installed static caravans at the farm for seasonal workers. The company, which had a turnover of more that £50 million in 2023, then appealed against the refusals to the government's Planning Inspectorate.
But now the appointed planning inspector AA Phillips has sided with the council and dismissed the twin appeals.
The inspector's report said ten of the proposed 18 caravans along the side of one field were already in place, along with a sewerage treatment plant connected to a "facilities trailer", with another planned.
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