It looks as if this could be the case following an email I received this morning from Shropshire Council in relation to a highly controversial factory pig farm proposal – 2000 pigs – by a local farmer just 500 metres or so from Upton Cressett. Just 24 hours after I had deposited the bulky findings of an 80 page special Transport and Highway Access report prepared by Phil Jones Associates on the famously narrow, steep and impassable lane at Upton Cressett to Thomas Cannaby, the Bridgnorth planning case officer at Shropshire Council, I received a reply that cheered me. He had been ill for a few days and that ‘whilst I was away the applications for pig rearing buildings at Upper House Farm have been withdrawn and so there are no longer any applications under consideration with regards to this matter’.
He had also received a copy of the Traffic and Highways report from Graham Dalal of Phil Jones Associates which was now placed on the Highway files for future reference.
The proposed intensive pig farm for 2000 pigs would have been about as far removed as imaginable from the idea of the sort of Shropshire pig breeding espoused by Lord Elmsworth in the Blandings novels where his ‘Empress Blandings’ – more of a Berkshire Sow pet than a pig – regularly wins the local county prize for best pig. I always assumed that the local agricultural fair that PG Wodehouse – who was brought up around Bridgnorth, and used to cycle the parsley filled lanes around Upton Cressett as a boy – used as his model was the Burwarton Show, which last year was washed out.
Anybody who lives in the remote rural countryside these days knows what it is like to be living under constant siege from developers, or local farmers being tugged by the temptations of EU subsidy – such as wind farms – or big supermarket chains (the very same who sold us horsemeat lasagne) who will throw generous ‘backing money’ at local farmers for intensive farming proposals so they can stick a nice ‘Shropshire reared’ label on their cheap sausages or chickens.
I dont know the reasons for the ‘withdrawl’ of the application for the pig factory at Upton Cressett but the first thing I did was to call my neighbour Mark Bullock, who lives at Rectory Lodge, which is even closer to the proposed pig factory at Upper House Farm than Upton Cressett. Mark, who owns a successful industrial paint business, is a very decent man and has been horrified – like me – at the way the planning application was handled, with no consultation or any sort of dialogue with neighbours who also have to use the notoriously treacherous and winding cul-de-sac lane that leads to Upton Cressett, winding for nearly three miles from the main Bridgnorth road.
Mark said: ‘It’s good news for Upton Cressett as the traffic situation along the lane really has become impossible in recent years and huge HGV lorries would only make traffic access along the lane even more unsustainable. Lets hope this gets the Council now to put warning signs on the road below Meadowley and at the entrance of the lane to say the road is “unsuitable for HGVs”. It is a one in four gradient in places – totally unsuitable for giant lorries. I had a gravel truck company the other day simply refuse to deliver gravel as they said the road was too steep and dangerous – or else they would only come in a pick up truck and charge me for dozens of loads. School taxis use the road every day. The road is falling to bits and lorries are having to be towed up the hill by tractors because of their loads and poor weather. The local community at Upton Cressett welcome this decision to withdraw the unpopular and controversial application’.
Other residents of Upton Cressett are also delighted that the application has been ‘withdrawn’. All of those who live at, or around, Upton Cressett applaud the Cantrills (the local farming family ) for their decision which will now help to protect and preserve both the historic landscape and beautiful countryside.
The supermarket chain that was behind their proposal were only interested in short term commercial gain – and like the many Welsh farmers who have found themselves falling out with the wind farm companies who they thought they were getting such a good deal with, but in reality were being ‘used’ – and abused – for commercial profit, I suspect the Cantrills will be grateful for taking back their independence and doing what real farmers do best: farm their own land themselves without being puppets, muppets or mercenaries for anybody else.
Upton Cressett is one of the heritage jewels of Shropshire and has been acclaimed by the likes of John Betjeman who called Upton Cressett a ‘remote and beautiful’ place. Let’s hope now it can remain so, for everybody to enjoy, including the local farmers who are an important part of the community themselves. So often in recent years, the farming community see themselves as outside the community, as if the countryside only belongs to them, when the Shropshire landscape – especially in such a beautiful place as Upton Cressett or Wenlcok Edge – belongs to all.
Everybody who is lucky enough to live in a place like this needs to realise that that the landscape and heritage assets like Upton Cressett are bonds that bring the community together and that planning development which divides communities and makes ‘quality of life’ unbearable for locals is anti-social and unreasonable, and which is why Britain not only has the the strongest landscape/heritage protection system in the world, but is also why our countryside and heritage remains the envy of the world.
This is the over-arching point that is made again and again in the brilliant new BBC 4/English Heritage television series currently running called Heritage ! The Battle for Britain’s Past. The three-pat series – last episode is this Thursday at 7pm – follows the heritage movement to protect Britain’s historic landscape and heritage from the 19th century to the modern day. The series complements the centenary of the 1913 Ancient Monuments Act – the legal act that really started the heritage tourism business giving the public the right to enjoy ancient monuments like Stone Henge – which I have blogged about before.
‘The Act was a landmark moment for heritage’ says English Heritage. ‘It created many of the powers still used to safeguard the nation’s legacy of historic buildings. It aslo effctively established the National Heritage Collection, Britain’s outdoor museum today consisting of 880 historic sites’.
Upton Cressett has – since the 12th century when the Norman church of St Michael was built, with the current Hall being built around 1430 – always been an important part of the ‘outdoor museum’ of heritage that makes not just Shropshire ‘s history resonant with architectural history, but also the history of the events that have taken place at Upton Cressett, and the people who have visited ot lived here and shaped the nation’s history – from young King Edward V, the eldest of the Princes in the Tower who reputedly stayed at Upton Cressett in April, 1483, on route to his death at the Tower of London – to Prince Rupert of the Rhine who stayed at the Gatehouse in the Civil War, to Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s.
There was never a pig farm stenching out the place when such visitors came here and I only hope there never will be as heritage is not really about the past – as Simon Thurley, CEO of English Heritage – likes to say: it is really about the future, and deciding what is worth preserving and saving.
The historic landscape around Upton Cressett is an important part of why people love living and visiting Shropshire. There are so few of these ancient hamlets left today and is why Upton Cresset was awarded ‘Best Hidden Gem’ as a heritage destination in the entire country last year. An industrial pig farm, with huge HGV lorries blocking the narrow cul-de-sac lane and causing havoc to the lives of local residents is the very last thing the historic and peaceful and remote hamlet of Upton Cressett needed.
A major factor in the ‘withdrawl’ of the application is likely to have been the hundreds of emails and letters of Objection to Shropshire Council from local residents, as well as heritage lovers from around the country who have been to Upton Cressett. A common theme was that the narrow lane at Upton Cressett is simply wholly unsuited to more heavy industrial traffic and the intensive pig farm would have made access to Upton Cressett increasingly unmanageable for both residents and visitors.
As part of our local community campaign to protect Grade 1 Upton Cressett from industrial development, led by myself and Caroline and Mark Bullock, various local residents at UC commissioned a leading planning and transport consultant firm called Phil Jones Associates, based in Birmingham, to visit Upton Cressett, and make an independent survey of the traffic and highway issues. We were advised by Phil Davies that the Traffic/Highway and transport access issues relating to the industrial pig units at Upper House Farm, Upton Cressett were grounds alone for having the planning application refused.
The company is one of the most highly respected planning consultants in the UK and work closely with various Councils and also the Government advising on safety and access issues for highway planning issues.
The 80 page report from Phil Jones Associates (who advise councils and the government on transport planning) concluded that :
1 CONCLUSIONS
1.2 The Note has reviewed the likely HGV trip generations related to the development proposals and has found that the proposals will increase HGV trips on the access route to and from the strategic highway network.
1.3 The standard of the site access route has been reviewed, particularly with regard to its suitability for access by HGV’s. It has been demonstrated that the access route is clearly unsuitable for access by HGV’s.
1.4 The Note includes a review of relevant guidance and policy to be taken into account regarding this type of development and concerning appropriate standards for providing access by HGV’s.
This has demonstrated that the access route is clearly substandard for use by HGV’s and that the proposed development is therefore inappropriate at this location.
1.5 It is concluded that there are a number of material considerations regarding HGV access and that planning consent for the development proposals should be refused accordingly.
Another important factor in getting the farmer to re-consider the application – now ‘withdrawn’ – is that last October Upton Cressett was given Grade 1 Status by English Heritage, making Upton Cressett one of the most heavily protected heritage sites in the country with three Grade 1 listed buidings and three Scheduled Ancient Monuments.
The Upton Cressett pig farm would have been an important test case for the NPPF and heritage protection following the precedent setting High Court ruling just two weeks ago in favour of protecting a Grade 1 heritage asset from inappropriate wind farm development – the 16th century National Trust heritage asset of Lyveden New Bield in Northants (below).
This is now being regarded as a test case for the working of the NPPF in regards to protecting the ‘historic setting’ of Grade 1 heritage assets of national significance.
Another factor was the report of English Heritage which raised concerns that the historic landscape and Hall would be directly impacted materially by the issue of the waste management of the pig muck.
English Heritage asked for specifics on where the pig waste would be stored and spread after we were told by John Cantrill – son of Roger Cantrill – at Upper House farm that it would be ‘everywhere’ – which meant on various fields that are within 10 or 20 metres of dwellings anf the Grade 1 heritage assets at Upton Cressett. No consideration had been given to the impact on the heritage assets from air/noise pollution etc, as well as the increased traffic along the steep lane between Upper House Farm at the Hall, Gatehouse and Norman church.
The traffic issue at Upton Cressett has been rumbling for a while now. Back in August/September 2012, Shropshire Council made an investigation into the Traffic and Highway Access issues at Upton Cressett relation to concerns by local residents at the traffic flow and size of industrial machinery being used along the very narrow lane.
Shropshire Council closed the case immediately after learning the full details below, pertaining to how the Grade 1 Hall, Gatehouse and Grade 1 church of St Michael have been open to the public as heritage attractions (and for teas) since the 1970s and that there has been no ‘change of use’.
What has increased dramatically in recent years is the size of the industrial farm machinery – mainly used by Upper House Farm – and the increased traffic flow from Upper House Farm after the farm was expanded to nearly 500 acres. It should also be noted that we at Upton Cressett voluntarily do not encourage bookings (except very occasionally from schools etc) from large tour coaches to make group visits to the Hall in the interests of local community traffic flow along the lane and consideration for local residents and Upper House Farm.
We lose out on very considerable revenue by taking this voluntary line but do so out of consideration for the local community and those that live around Upton Cressett as it is simply impossible for a large grain lorry or livestock lorry to pass a tour bus to pass at almost any point on the two and a half mile lane – hence causing serious danger (from one party having to reverse for often hundreds of yards), delays and huge inconvenience to residents – not to mention continual damage to kerbs, banks, and the road from having to manoeuvre large vehicles into make-shift passing places etc.
Allowing a large number of huge HGV vehicles carrying pigs to be ferried along the narrow, steep and almost impassable unclassified lane – facing traffic coming the other way from school taxis, heritage visitors, Council rubbish lorries, local residents and other deliveries – would appear to clearly contravene various Shropshire Highway and planning guidelines as set out in your detailed report. It would be dangerous, irresponsible and only make a current bad traffic situation reach the point of being unmanageable.
The local Council rubbish/waste collection lorries currently struggle to reach the Hall and Rectory Lodge (home of the Bullock family) in bad weather, and any increase in traffic from heavy farm vehicles would make the task of the Council waste disposal drivers even more difficult than at present.
There are already regular major problems when the Council’s waste/garbage lorries meet large farm vehicles on the impassable road and it would seem impossible that the Council would want to allow a situation where the Council’s rubbish collection vehicles are regularly stranded on the lane due to the impossibility of passing increased number of large HGV vehicles containing pigs – around 2000 each ‘rotation’ – being delivered or collected from Upper House Farm.
Thankfully, it looks now as if the Council won’t have to decide on the matter as reason seems to have won the day from the farmers themselves. If only Roger or John Cantrill would now turn off that appalling ‘shot-gun’ noise machine for scaring birds – which wakes everybody up and is one of the most supremely anti-social ‘farming’ devices ever invented – then the hamlet can finally get back to being a ‘remote and beautiful’ – not to mention ‘peaceful’ – place to live again. As it has been for over a thousand years.
