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News

19 August 2010

Some people are campaigning against putting allotments on the field up Hernaford Road. Their arguments are that the road is a precious wild corridor and that establishing a parking area for cars serving the allotments would be a wedge facilitating eventual planning permission for houses.

Here is a brief account of how we came to the present position.

Harbertonford Allotment Society (HAS) petitioned the Parish Council (PC) to find land for allotments, which the PC is required to do under the law.

The PC offered the Hernaford road field, after asking all the surrounding landowners and being offered 2 fields, one later withdrawn.

HAS responded that the field was OK agriculturally and proposed amending the draft agreement between the owner of the field, Colin Finch (CF), and the PC, to protect residents of Hernaford Road against motor traffic by accepting pedestrian-only access into the field.

If HAS had decided that the space offered is unacceptable - that would be equivalent to disbanding and waiting a generation or more for allotments, since the PC would be relieved of its duty to provide land. Before the PC offered this land, HAS had searched for local land for 3 years, with no success.

In later discussions between CF and the joint PC-HAS committee, held to refine the technical details of the draft lease agreement between CF and the PC, CF was open about his wish to build on the land, or sell it for housing. That has never been a secret: the field was offered in the early stage of the South Hams District Council search for building land (see no 5 on the plan on www.harbertonford.org/index.php/Region/SouthHamsCouncil).

It is up to the PC and CF to negotiate the final form of the lease and it is up to South Hams Planners to consider anything more than an unloading and turning space - which any farmer has a right to put on agricultural land.

Anyone wanting to influence, or stop, the lease agreement must now lobby the Parish Council. It is out of the hands of HAS, which hopes to become a tenant of the field, paying rent to the Parish Council, with an entirely separate tenancy agreement.

Regarding the road: it is a public road maintained, I think, by Devon County Council. The hedges are maintained, in whatever form they wish, subject to tree preservation orders, by the adjacent landowners. There is nothing HAS can do to influence the traffic, the appearance or the wildlife of the road. The land towards Hernaford Farm is designated an area of high landscape value. This probably has no protective value because the land currently proposed for housing up Old Road also lies within this zone.

Frances Padfield

18 August 2010

The PC-HAS subcommittee has developed a draft lease, between Colin Finch and the Parish Council, which will be on the agenda at the PC meeting on the 14th September.

13 July 2010

The Parish Council approved continuing to negotiate with Colin Finch. Martin Fearn confirmed that the PC has written to all the surrounding landowners and only got a positive response from Colin Finch. When the offer has been firmed up by the PC-HAS subcommittee working with Colin Finch, the PC will subscribe to the National Allotments Society to take advantage of its free legal advice service to draw up the final contract.

9 July 2010

An offer by Colin Finch of a field up Hernaford Road, immediately adjacent to the last house on the right, will be discussed by the Parish Council at its meeting in Harberton Parish Hall, 7,30 pm, Tuesday 13 July. The offer is generous and appreciated by the Allotment Society, but the society is concerned to minimise both vehicle traffic and visual disturbance. It has therefore suggested changes to the contract on offer.