This is the website of a group of over 80 local families living in and around the hamlets of Tuesley and Enton, near Guildford in Surrey.

In July 2003 a major UK supplier of soft fruit to Waitrose and Sainsbury, the Hall Hunter Partnership, bought 470 acre Tuesley Farm just outside Godalming. The farm is in the Green Belt, and about 66% is in an Area of Great Landscape Value. In 2004, following sterilisation of the soil with methyl bromide (now banned from use in the UK) intensive strawberry and raspberry production of the farm started under 12 foot high polytunnels. The photographs on this website give some idea of the huge scale of the operation and the impact on the local footpaths and bridleways in the area. Individual tunnels are hundreds of metres long and they are linked together to form continuous structures. Each linked group of polytunnels at Tuesley covers as much as 10 acres without a break and six or seven of these structures are placed side by side for months on end.

Our group of residents does not object to the use of large scale polytunnels in the UK. What the residents objected to were the tunnels placed on the Green Belt and AGLV at Tuesley Farm starting in 2004, where they were later ruled contrary to a variety of local and national policies.There are here to stay, but a grower should apply for planning permission before erecting them. In our view the law has always been clear - large scale Spanish polytunnels are structures which need planning permission. Hall Hunter didn’t consider this before they bought the farm, didn’t bother to get permission before they put them up, and then refused to make a retrospective application and disputed permission was needed. However Waverley Borough Council agreed with Tuesley Farm Residents’ legal advisors that planning permission was needed and in July 2004 it served planning enforcement notices on all the polytunnels and the 45 mobile homes which had been put on the site in November 2003 requiring their removal. As expected, Hall Hunter appealed the notices.

After an 11 day planning inquiry in 2005, at which Hall Hunter had 8 expert witnesses, they lost their argument before a government appointed planning inspector who gave his decision in December 2005. He was in no doubt that planning permission was needed for the polytunnels, and due to the overwhelming scale and impact of the Hall Hunter operation on the landscape and on residents, he refused to grant them planning permission. By this time the peak summer coverage was up to about 40 hectares, or 100 acres and Hall Hunter, (still supported by Waitrose) were still planting more fields of fruit even though they hadn’t got planning permission.

Hall Hunter appealed against the Inspector’s decision but it took a whole year before that was heard by the High Court, during which time they increased coverage again. By the end of 2006 some families have had covered polytunnels in front of their houses for 32 months of the last 3 years and coverage at peak season was up to about 44 hectares, or 110 acres. Hall Hunter lost their appeal (both the original Inspector’s decision and the judgment of the High Court are available in pdf form at the bottom of the home page). They have decided not to appeal any further.

The effect of the decision in the High Court is to make it clear to all local authorities that large scale polytunnels need planning permission before they are erected.

One of the important benefits of the legal decision is that it will mean that in future statutory bodies like the Environment Agency and in some areas Natural England will have to be consulted before polytunnels are erected. The absence of applications for planning permission means that the Environment Agency had no control over major water management issues connected with these tunnels, particularly the control of run off into sensitive local watercourses and across highways. As part of the planning process the Environment Agency often seeks planning conditions to control run off from polytunnels and occasionally objects outright to the grant of planning permission if a site is particularly sensitive.

THE TUESLEY FARM CAMPAIGN IS PLEASED TO HAVE PURSUED THIS IMPORTANT POINT OF PLANNING LAW TO A SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSION IN THE HIGH COURT. WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR MANY SUPPORTERS FOR THEIR HELP AND ENCOURAGEMENT OVER THE LAST THREE YEARS.

WE NOW NEED TO MOVE ON, AFTER THE FORMAL APPLICATION IS MADE, TO SEE WHETHER IT WILL BEGIN TO ADDRESS THE MANY ISSUES THE INSPECTOR AND THE HIGH COURT JUDGE HAD WHEN REJECTING THE LAST PLANNING APPLICATION.

Hall Hunter has a year from December 2006 to remove the polytunnels and mobile homes, unless they can get planning permission in the meantime. As a result of losing the planning appeal Hall Hunter are now trying to deal with the planning issues they should have addressed years ago, like the impact on the local landscape. They have appointed a new farms manager who is trying to improve communications between Hall Hunter and the residents. They are currently working on an application for planning permission for a reduced area of polytunnels of about 20 hectares peak coverage and an improved landscaping scheme which we expect to be submitted to Waverley Borough Council in Spring 2007.

Guildford and Godalming Friends of the Earth have been active supporters of this campaign and we are pleased to have the support of Friends of the Earth UK. The Surrey Group of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England also appeared at the inquiry and has fully backed the campaign, as has the local MP, Jeremy Hunt.

June 2007 - One Sainsbury's lorry going to the farm had to mount the pavement whilst trying to pass another Sainsbury's lorry coming from the farm!

This was the result!

17th May 2006 Tuesley Lane, Milford - run off from HHP's fields making the road to Milford Hospital virtually impassable for pedestrians

November 2005 - Hall Hunter didn't put as many polytunnels up this year because they realised how awful they looked and they knew that a Planning Inspector would be coming to look at them.

October 2004 - View from Clock Barn Farm main bedroom window - these 12' high polytunnels tunnels were erected in July 2004 and were still there in November, completely destroying the beautiful view towards Hindhead and Gibbets Hill (in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) from a very popular and well-used public bridleway which runs just beneath this window.

In July 2003 a large soft fruit grower called Hall Hunter Partnership bought a 470 acre arable farm called Tuesley Farm, just outside Godalming. Hall Hunter's enormous industrial farming operation relies on huge ‘Spanish’ polytunnels for 10 months every year. Hall Hunter is the major supplier of English strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries to Waitrose, which is by far its largest customer. Hall Hunter also installed 45 mobile homes inside a large compound to house up to 250 workers between March and November each year. These mobile homes are the same as the large mobile homes you find at the seaside caravan parks. They are all connected to gas, water and mains sewage services.

Both Waverley Borough Council (which covers the market towns of Godalming, Haslemere and Farnham) and the Tuesley Farm Campaign have been given expert legal advice that the mobile home compound, the Spanish polytunnels and some huge windbreaks erected at Tuesley Farm all require planning permission. In fact it is clear that Hall Hunter should have made a planning application before they installed the mobiles homes and the polytunnels in 2003/2004, but Hall Hunter flatly refused to do so.

The landscape in and around Tuesley is regarded as being of high scenic quality and is protected by the planning system. The Hall Hunter development is very intrusive, a genuine blight on this scenic landscape and a clear breach of local and national planning policies. The whole of Tuesley Farm is situated within the Metropolitan Green Belt, which surrounds London. The Green Belt is protected against 'inappropriate development'. Two-thirds of Tuesley Farm is also within an area of protected landscape called an ‘Area of Great Landscape Value’ (or AGLV for short). The landscape in much of the area is very attractive, with wooded valleys, beautiful rolling hills, and glorious views from various beauty spots. The AGLV is a buffer zone around an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, or AONB for short. The AONBs are protected at national level, and have the same level of landscape protection as National Parks. At Tuesley, part of the Surrey Hills AONB is next to the farm. The National Trust owns land nearby. The farm and surrounding area has many bridleways and footpaths and the whole area is very popular with walkers and visitors - we have many millions of visitors to this borough each year.

There is no compelling agricultural reason why these landscape protection policies should be ignored. Hall Hunter has farmed for many years in another part of the south east of England where there are no landscape protection policies being applied.

A planning application would have allowed Hall Hunter's case to be properly tested against these planning policies, but Hall Hunter refused to make one. To protect the public interest, Waverley Borough Council had no choice but to serve planning enforcement notices on Hall Hunter in August 2004 (see ‘Planning Documents). Hall Hunter lodged an appeal against the enforcement notices, which meant a public inquiry had to be held so that a Planning Inspector could hear all the evidence and decide whether or not Hall Hunter should remain, and if so on what conditions. This inquiry was long and expensive, for everybody involved. It started in February 2005, and took a total of about 13 days spread over 3 sessions, ending on 7 October 2005. Waverley Borough Council argued that planning permission should not be given for the polytunnels, mobile homes, and windbreaks because of the detrimental impact on the landscape. Tuesley Farm Campaign and the Surrey Branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England also took part in the inquiry and gave evidence in support of the position taken by Waverley Borough Council.

In mid-December 2005 we received the result and we had won! See Latest News section for full update.

View photographs of Tuesley Farm