‘Organic idyll’ shop set to close

[Richard Loader]

The heading is from a Daily Echo article.

It seems Warbourne farm is closing it's retail outlet partly due to the recession but also because of planning difficulties with the NFNPA. Some of you who live over that side of the Forest may have more info on this one but it seems to me that the time will come when planning will have to become one of the facets of Transition, especially in a heavily controlled area like the New Forest National Park.

The possibility of keeping the shop open by selling food grown outside the farm has also been ruled out. Planning policies enforced by New Forest National Park Authority (NPA) only permit the sale of food produced on site.

If permitting bought-in produce could have made the farm shop viable then the NFPA planners must be mad to not flex rules a little to help such a respected and prestigious facility to continue.

Planning restriction also heavily hamper the installation of domestic, alternative energy sources such as PV. arrays and wind turbines. I think the NFNPA attentions are too focussed on human habitation and maintaining chocolate box 'prettiness' and not enough on the open Forest. I was surprised at the total capitulation of the the NFNPA to the dog, horse and pony fraternity regarding the draft management plan, it shows what can be achieved by enough well organised voices.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4740130.___Organic_idyll____shop_se...

[Ian Nelson]

May I suggest that we all meet at the farm after the market at 4pm as that leaves the majority of the day free.
I would open the "discussion" up and spread the word. 60 people maximum and would be good if people would let us know if they were coming. In terms of structuring the event - I can put a perspective on local food production, farm shops, planners, farmers' market. Then maybe we can roll that on into talking about community ownership which is transition and Food and More Project thinking. Awareness of the situation is a first step. I will also go and see George H in advance and maybe he can come along.

[Richard]

Ian - maybe what you are suggesting is 'the next step' after we have a bit of a brainstorm on Saturday. I can't make the afternoon and I think others are only ok for the original time of 11am - can we stick to that for a first get together and see what enthusiasm there is for a wider public event?

Do other contributors to this blog agree/have other ideas?

[Natasha Moore]

I can do 11pm any later in the day wouldn't be so good for me. If theres anyone in the Lymington area that would like a lift let me know, it will save us all taking cars (if we are sticking to 11 that is)

[Richard]

Hi all - have agreed with Ian that we'll get together at 11am on Saturday (28th) @ Sunnyfields. Basically to do a bit of brainstorming about what we want to do. I reckon an hour should do it. Anyone can come - feel free to invite friends etc - I'm going to mention it to a few people from Soton and Romsey Transition groups - hope to see you there. Richard

[Jeni Shergold]

I have only just read this post but did not know that the planning dept stupid rules were behind this. The brockenhurst /Setly ridge farm shop sells food from IOW. the garlic at Warbourne was from IOW. SO WHAT!!

But to stop them from using green energy is just too stupid for words.

 

I wonder if the thinking is any different now?with the oil problems and the need for businesses to survive?

[Charles Edward Loader]

The first thought with green power is usually wind or solar panels(still only about 10 -15% efficient) to generate electricity but likely, at least in the South of England, a much better use of sunshine is to heat water and to heat houses. Solar water heaters are user widely in Europe and Israel and can produces enough hot water for laundry and showers. For home heating there are inexpensive panels that can be mounted on a wall to collect the energy from the sun as heat and circulate it into the house (the original design used waste beer cans in the collector so green).

I have silicon solar panels on the south facing wall of my house that I use main as a back up power supply. The panel keeps a 12 volt battery fully charged with power to spare that is enough to run some LED lighting and run my computer. At full price I calculated that it will take 20 years to pay off the cost in electricity! Of course, on the rare occasions that the power fails it is great to have the back up power and provided the sun shines (and it usually does after a blizzard) the battery keeps charging.
The solar panels look like a window at a distance. When mounted on a roof it should not really bother planners at all. There are designs coming available where solar panels actually form the roof or look like tiles or other roof coverings. 

Time for a revision of the planning regulations!