How much?
We take a look at exactly how much farmland is being lost to development in Somerset.
This week two applications on a very different scale offered the chance for councillors to agree top plans to build over more parcels of Somerset’s rich and versatile farmland.
The first application covering just over 5 acres of land off Brewham Road in Bruton was agreed. Councillors did not feel that 5 acres of grade 2 farmland was worth protecting.
Then Area East considered an application on the outskirts of Frome that would see 240 acres of land, currently all farmland of mixed quality (but including plenty of grade 3a farmland) approved for development.
Happily they did not agree to it. But only after the Planning Officer’s report stated, quite wrongly, that “the loss of this agricultural land is not in itself considered to be a reason to refuse planning permission.”
If you read this Substack then you’ll realise by now that this is nonsense. NPPF 180b (and footnote 62 specifically) allows the rejection of planning where an application would use best and most versatile agricultural land.
As we have noted before, the problem with the loss of farmland is that our councils do not have a clue as to how much land is being lost. So as they are not interested in keeping tabs on it, we thought we would have a go.
We took a look at planning applications approved by all four planning committees (North, South, East and West) of Somerset Council for the five months to May. What we looked at specifically was how much agricultural land, and in particular good quality agricultural land, had been lost.
It is worth noting in passing that no applications were considered in that period to build houses on brownfield sites in the county. So with apologies for presenting a bit of a list, here are the applications approved with the total agricultural land lost:
Area South
Coat Road Martock Grade 3a land – 6 hectares approved 30 January 2024
Camp Hill site West Coker – 16 hectares solar arrays Grade 1 land – Approved 30 January 2024
Canal Way Ilminster – 21 hectares for housing 3a and 3b land plus fallowing of 110 hectares of agricultural land as nutrient neutrality. Grade 3 land – no Magic Map data. Approved 9 January 2024.
Land West of Silver Street South Petherton – 3 hectares for housing Grade 2 land. Approved 27 February 2024
Land at Broadway Hill Horton – 2 hectares grade 3 land (No Magic Map) Approved 26 March 2024
Land Adjoining, Wheathill Lane, Milborne Port – 3 hectares grade 3a land Approved 26 March 2024
Land north of Somerton Road Langport – 6 hectares, grade 2 and 3b land approved 28 May 2024
Total 167 hectares
Area West
Land At Preston Farm, Wiveliscombe Road, Preston Bowyer. 31 hectares Grades 1, 2 and 3 land (no magic map) Approved 23 January 2024
Land to the North of Taunton Road, Wellington, 11 hectares Grade 1, 2 and 3a land – Approved 1 May 2024
Monkton Heathfield Urban Extension, 117 hectares Grade 2 and 3a land Approved 1 May 2024
Land To The North Of Burges Lane, Wiveliscombe, 2.6 hectares grades 2 and 3 land (No Magic Map) Approved 1 May 2024
Total 161.6 hectares
Area North
Land to the South of, Lavers Close, Woolavington, 17 hectares Grade 3a and 3b land Approved 27 February 2024
Land To The North Of, Old Bristol Road, East Brent, 3 hecatres Grade 3 land (No magic map) Approved 12 March 2024
Total 20 hectares
Area East
Land At 352613 133868 Baltonsborough Road Butleigh, 12 hecatres Grade 3 (No Magic Map) Approved 5 March 2024
Land At Underhill Lane Ston Easton, 2 hectares Grade 3 agricultural land (No Magic Map) Approved 7 May 2024
Land to the Southeast of Bradford Road, Rode, Frome, 74 hectares Grade 3 land (No Magic Map) Deferred 7 May 2024, (finally approved 7 July)
Total 89 hectares
That gives a grand total of 437 hectares of agricultural land lost across the Somerset Council area in just 5 months.
Which obviously begs the question how much land is that? Using DEFRA figures we calculate that Somerset contains 350,000 hectares of agricultural land in total.
In 2012 Natural England estimated that Grades 1 and 2 together formed about 21% of all farmland in England, with Grade 3a covering a further 21% (Natural England Technical Information Note TIN049, Second edition, 19 December 2012, Agricultural Land Classification: protecting the best and most versatile agricultural land). So 42% of total agricultural land.
Applying that % to Somerset we can reasonably assume that 147,000 hectares of farmland are graded 1-3a. Assuming the same rate of loss of farmland across the remaining 7 months of the year, that would equate to 1,048 hectares lost.
Which means that in just 1 year we would have lost 0.7% of the total agricultural land available.
If we assume the same rate of farmland loss has occurred over the past decade then we will have lost 7% of all of our best quality agricultural land.
But even that may not be the full picture.
Because remember that in 2020 Natural England downgraded the ecological status of the Somerset Levels and Moors because of phosphate pollution caused mostly by development and dairy farming (and the discharge of human and animal effluent).
Since then there has been a moratorium on development that cannot demonstrate phosphate neutrality. So these figures for the last year are from a period when development has been slowed down.
The planners are clueless because they do not have the figures, the government is helpless because it is obsessed with building houses.
The bottom line is that there is a very real crisis happening under our noses. If we do not wake up to it quickly, we will have a major crisis of food production on our hands.
It is not just the past year. During the 20 years I have been living in South Somerset, huge areas of high quality land have been built over.
Lopenhead now has warehousing and car parks on grade 1 agricultural land, despite the planning inspector saying that it should not be developed. The LibDems forced it through, with Rick Pallister, now residing in one of His Majesty's establishments so happily unable to continue with vandalising the District, (I was please to see that his OBE has been taken away) and Jo Roundell-Greene, the leader of the disastrous Yeovil Refresh project, being keen advocates.
In South Petherton, Frogmary Green Farm is now covered in offices, a house, flats, cafe, shops, loads of parking, glamping, a classroom which is now used for commercial courses etc all allegedly 'farm diversification'. It no longer produces any food, apart from the large area built over for chicken sheds. The developed land has been sold off recently at a substantial profit.
Ilminster, once a pleasant little market own, over the last 20 years has changed beyond recognition, again more agricultural land disappearing under housing estates.
All over South Somerset, farmers have been converting barns to housing and then building new barns on their farms using up more agricultural land. The land surrounding Yeovil is now being developed for even more houses and warehousing and Langport is no longer recognisable from when I first visited it 30 years ago.
None of this development has added any noteworthy contribution to the infrastructure of the area. Schools and surgeries are struggling to cope, floods are regular occurrences because of excessive development, and the lanes and roads through towns and villages are being wrecked by heavy traffic for which they were never intended. Crewkerne in particular is long overdue a by-pass but nothing has happened.
The LibDems have been an epic disaster.