‘Stop turning blind eye to farm’, neighbours demand

A group of 14 neighbours of a controversial Herefordshire farm have accused Herefordshire Council of letting the farm operate outside of planning rules “for years”.

In August Herefordshire Council refused an application by AS Green of Rook Row Farm, Mathon near the Worcestershire border, to have the farm’s packhouse reclassified as being for industrial rather than agricultural use.

But there are other planning issues at the farm which neighbours say have been allowed to drag on for far too long. A letter signed by 14 of them has called on principal planning officer Adam Lewis to either resolve these or have them withdrawn.

The first is a retrospective planning bid made in late 2021 to permit 33 workers’ caravans, already in place on the farm at the time.

The residents claim this was “misleading” as the farm claimed these were for “seasonal” workers, yet many of them “were, and remain, engaged in AS Green’s year-round international importing / packaging / distribution business”.

The council “should now take enforcement action against the caravans”, which “almost double Mathon’s population”, the neighbours write, accusing the council of “turning a blind eye” to the planning breach.

They also fear the slow pace of decision making will lead to the “unregulated” use of the packhouse, with its attendant heavy traffic in the parish’s narrow lanes, becoming immune from enforcement.

They demand that the “preferential treatment” that the farm has enjoyed “must stop”.

Mr Lewis replied that the council “is currently reviewing its position before determining how best to address the issues identified on the Rook Row site”.

“I am in active dialogue with colleagues in planning enforcement, the applicant and their agent regarding possible next steps,” he wrote.

But one of the signatories, Fiona Bulmer, has now responded: “For many years we have been told that the planning authority is in discussions with the applicant and their agent.

“However, nothing happens, and their operations continue unrestricted with the ability to further grow.”

Ms Bulmer is pursuing a planning bid of her own to have the whole site classed as for agricultural use. Her letter to Mr Lewis demands to know why no decision has yet been made on this case either.