1,300 ACRES OF POLYTUNNELS

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 8th Apr 2009

Trudy Dean raised comments about a planning application for 1,300 acres of polytunnels on land across six parishes centred on Mereforth.

The application to Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council has been submitted by Hugh Lowe Farms. One third of the acreage is expected to be under polytunnels in any one year, and Council Protection Rural England (CPRE) has estimated that half of the area is expected to be under permanent polytunnels, all year round. In permanent polytunnels plants are often grown in growbags.

Polytunnels have a beneficial effect in reducing use of chemicals and water during cultivation. But there is great public concern about the appearance of large areas of countryside disappearing under plastic. Residents living nearby have also suffered from noise of plastic flapping in the wind, and of rain falling on the tunnels.

Trudy explained that she had seen in other countries the result of shreds of plastic from polytunnels turning the countryside into a rubbish tip. Planning authorities would need to be vigilant about the disposal of waste materials. The application from Hugh Lowe Farms so far does not address this problem.

Trudy has called on Kent County Council to produce Planning Guidelines for polytunnels, as have Herefordshire County Council. "We must have urgently guidelines about how many polytunels are acceptable within the landscape, how they should be screened, who gets rid of waste and whether permanent polytunnels using growbags on tables need to be in the countryside at all."