Fruit farm ordered to tear down one mile of 'eyesore' polytunnels

FRUIT farm bosses who built a mile of polytunnels without permission on a national park have been ordered to take them down.

- By Charlie Bradley

Residents claimed the “eyesore” structures have forced them into a “living hell” and were a dangerous precedent for further work on rural land.

They also complained that the plastic structure “obliterated” views of the New Forest countryside from their homes.

Fifteen of the tunnels, each around 13ft high and between 87 and 185 yards long, were built without consent and filled with vines to grow grapes for wine.

The plastic corridors, set in a National Landscape once known as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - in the Beaulieu Estate at the heart of the national park, Hants, led to a string of neighbours submitting objections.

Loud

Work started on them last year, with retrospective planning permission asked for last May. Now the National Park Authority has rejected New Forest Fruit's bid, meaning they will have to tear down the structures. The farm has six months to appeal.

The authority said: “The application proposes such an inappropriate form of development that no amendments could be recommended to enable planning permission to be granted.”