Take a look at this
It's a planning application re Matford House Farm for change of use of land to Suitable Alternative Natural Green Space (SANGs) required for the residential development on adjoining land.
So, my question is - why isn't the Dawlish SANGs on adjoining land to all the residential development planned for Dawlish?
Just took a quick look at the planning statement for this application.
On page 16 there is Appendix B which lists Natural England's advice concerning SANGS.
It says that requirements referred to as "must" or "should haves" are essential.
And what do we find listed under this essential heading but this gem: "Sangs must be free
from unpleasant intrusions (eg sewage treatment works smells etc".)
And just what is located right next to the proposed Dawlish Sangs at what is presently Warren Farm?
Was walking along Warren Road this morning.
Guess what greeted me when I reached the footpath opposite the water treatment works.
A pong, that's what.
Did you notice any farming taking place at Warren Farm - "Suppliers of straw and hay"? As usual, on the two recent occasions that I've walked past, there's been no farming activity taking place there.
Which doesn't mean to say that farming activities don't take place there at other times of the year, does it? (and I know they do because I've seen the animals).
That'd be a "no" then to my question. Farmer Weeks' advert in the Airshow programme also suggests that he offers nothing but dried grass for horses and somesuch, plus a car and caravan park now and again.
As I said, I know animals are put on it during the year because I have seen them.
And as far as I am aware, not all of the land at Warren Farm is visible from the road.
And so what if he supplies straw and hay. Isn't that a farming activity?
But to get back to the point. A Sangs must be free from unpleasant intrusions (eg sewage treatment works smells)
But we keep hearing about his land supposedly being Grade One, yet all he offers is straw and hay. There's plenty of land available to him that could offer the same source of income - though maybe without the possibility of him building a big house in the middle of it...
Oh, and plenty of Warren Farm is also visible from the coastal footpath. A dozen or so sheep does not make a farm...
Hay is grown and straw is a bye product of a cerial crop so are cerials being grown or is the straw bought in.
Some sort of cereal (barley) is supposedly grown in one field in Spring. The same sort of cereal that no doubt could be grown in any field.
Nice piece of reformatting by the website software. Yet again.
The point I am making, to say it for the third time, is that a SANGS should not be sited by a sewage works. What the land is, or is not presently used for, is irrelevant.
Kindly show some respect and please be aware that Mrs Pedantic was mastermind champ 1977 , specialist subject "What constitutes a farm?"
It was Junior Mastermind actually...
Thanks for your contribution to the debate though. If you lot can't see that you're being conned by Farmer Weeks' sob story, then that's your look out.
how our we being conned @OurSoul. he's a farmer,. with his own land. farming. surely he doesn't have to justify himself and what he farms? why is it a sob story? i'm sure we're all aware there are seasons for different types of farming and things get rotated.
@Lynne, at the moment you'd struggle to find an area of dawlish that doesn't have a whiff about it.
For the fourth time:
A SANGS should not be located by a water treatment works.
And on that basis alone Farmer Weeks has good reason to object to Warren Farm being turned into a SANGS.
I will be so glad when this all comes to a end about 10 years ago i mentioned to friends that Dawlish will in the future a suburb of Exeter they thought i was speaking out of the back of my head i wonder who will be correct them or me? And with net migration at 330,000 and thousands more flooding into the EU all looking for homes it could be sooner than later.
I don't like to see sprawling housing estates but eighty years ago the people of Dawlish probably felt the same about the housing most of us currently live in - anyone seen th photos of Dawlish before the trees were chopped down to make way for all the housing up to East Cliff and West Cliff Roads. That's unfortunately how it is.
If Mr Weeks doesn't farm his land he'd surely be rubbing his hands together at the prospect of a CPO, not fighting it. Or even if he doesn't farm it and was hoping to sell it off for future housing development so what. Why should he be forced to provide SANGS for other housing landowners who could provide it but aren't. Meanwhile all Dawlish residents will get fobbed off with Sewage-by-the-Sea SANGS.
Please 