Nursery’s growing plans thwarted

A Herefordshire grower of ornamental plants has dropped a large-scale expansion plan after wrangles with council officers over its environmental impact.

Allensmore Nurseries of Madley west of Hereford had planned to turn four fields totalling 70 acres into open-air nursery beds, in a scheme involving new internal roadways, a 1.2-hectare reservoir, irrigation tanks and staff facilities.

Herefordshire Council’s senior ecologist Ana Coxixo objected to the plans, saying they could adversely effect the river Wye special area of conservation, and that further information was needed on how sewage from the staff toilet would be dealt with.

She said no details had been provided on how the a proposed two-metre-high soil banks around the fields were to be constructed, and on what impact they would have on existing hedgerows and their roots.

And she asked for further information on proposed rabbit fencing to protect what she termed the “flower beds”, to ensure this did not harm the hedgerows.

The council’s drainage officer also raised several issues with the proposed drainage scheme for the site.

But the nursery’s managing director Mark Taylor rejected these points, saying that the ecology consultants it had engaged expected impacts on protected waterways of the development to be “minimal”, given the proposed on-site treatment of run-off water.

The nursery’s trained horticulturists would “dramatically improve” hedgerows on the site, some of which were currently “in dire condition”, he said.

These would not be impacted by the planned embankments, as could be demonstrated by existing arrangements at the nursery, nor by proposed four rabbit fencing, Mr Taylor said.

Allensmore was asked why its proposal had been withdrawn.