The Hall Hunter Partnership is a soft fruit growing business owned by Mark and Mary Hall and their son Harry. The Halls farm large areas of soft fruit in the area around Wokingham in Berkshire as well as at Tuesley Farm. Mark and Mary Hall bought their first farm in the 1960s and moved into soft fruit in the early 1990s. Harry Hall joined his parents in the business in the mid 1990s.

The Halls are large scale growers who only grow soft fruit for sale to supermarkets, mainly Waitrose. In the financial years ending 31 March 2003, 2004 and 2005 the Halls soft fruit business made profits of £281,000, £624,000 and £285,000 before tax . Their projected profits for the year ending 31 March 2006 are £483,000.

In 2003 Harry Hall bought Tuesley Farm for over £2.8 million. The Halls say Tuesley Farm accounts for 40% of their business and at Tuesley Farm alone the turnover is over £3.6 million per annum. We calculate that the turnover at the Halls’ farms in Berkshire is at least another £6 million. If the Halls are refused planning permission their business will still survive, even if they have to sell Tuesley Farm - Mark Hall said so in his evidence to the planning inquiry.

Money has been spent at Tuesley Farm setting up the business, for instance they have built a packing shed. Some of these costs have been publicly funded through grants. The Halls get large grants towards the hedges and field margins they plant under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme. We believe that they have also had capital grants towards the purchase of the polytunnels themselves.

As Mark Hall has admitted, the Halls bought Tuesley Farm without giving any thought to planning policy in our area including the Green Belt policies. He says that they didn’t realise that different planning policies applied at Tuesley to the policies applying to their farms in Wokingham – but there is an old rule which applies to everybody - ‘ignorance of the law is no defence’. Once the Halls had been told their mistake by Waverley Borough Council they just dug their heels in and refused to co-operate with the Council when it asked them to submit a planning application. Without a planning application it was impossible for the Council to know where, when and how many polytunnels and mobile homes the Halls were planning to put up. A planning application would have resulted in some local consultation and discussion about the impact of the Halls development on both the public and the residents. It would have given everybody a chance to exercise their democratic rights and put their points of view. To make the Halls take notice Waverley had to serve the Halls with planning enforcement notices. This resulted in the case being heard at an inquiry before a government appointed Planning Inspector.

At the inquiry the Halls tried hard to convince the planning inspector that they were reasonable people (and considerate neighbours if you happened to live next to them - some of the residents have seen a different side to the Halls - see letter from HHp's surveyor to a resident). Early on the Halls' own experts admitted that the polytunnels are a problem in the Green Belt and the Area of Outstanding Landscape Value because they are so ugly and obtrusive in this sensitive landscape. All through the planning inquiry the Halls had been suggesting they would restrict the area the polytunnels cover and take them down in winter. On the penultimate day of the inquiry the Halls showed their true colours. At the eleventh hour in what is called the ‘Conditions Session’ of the inquiry the Halls refused to accept

- any restriction on the total area which they can cover with polytunnels on this

- any restriction on the number of months that polytunnels can remain in any particular location

- any requirement to dismantle the polytunnels in the winter and

- the local Council and local residents should have any opportunity to seek to say at all over where and how long the polytunnels can be placed each year – (this would have helped because some places on the farm are better than others).

The residents believe that every responsible business should obey the law and observe the regulatory systems. The Halls have tried to ignore the law and ride roughshod over this community and its elected representatives - if they are penalised and refused planning permission they have only themselves to blame.