Knockback for Herefordshire farm’s £1m fruit store

A large Herefordshire fruit grower’s plan to build a 70-metre-long controlled-atmosphere store for its apples has been refused permission.

EC Drummond planned to invest around £1 million on the new facility at Tillington fruit farm near Burghill northwest of Hereford, complementing its recent investment in new orchards at the farm.

Featuring roof-mounted solar panels and rainwater harvesting tanks, the new store was intended to reduce the firm’s carbon footprint while keeping its fruit in prime condition.

The proposal was to include new native hedgerows around the boundaries, new trees and a wildflower area.

But the plan went down badly with council officers and with nine local households, who all submitted objections.

Senior landscape officer Nigel Koch said the “site selection, orientation, and scale of the building, the encroachment onto Burghill village and potential noise, landscape and visual impacts [are] not acceptable”.

Highways engineer Jill Tookey-Williams objected to the scheme’s potential impact on local roads, particularly given its nearness to the village primary school, and “the absence of the necessary supporting information and technical details”.

A lack of information on the noise impact of the scheme also prompted an objection from environmental health officer Phillipa Long.

These were sufficient reasons to refuse permission, planning officer Adam Lewis ruled, concluding the building would be “an incongruous and visually intrusive feature in the locality”.

The farm was approached for comment on the decision.