Farmers in Herefordshire are the first in the country to be forced to seek planning permission before erecting polytunnels on their land.

The decision by the county council follows widespread concern from homeowners about the growth of the long plastic greenhouses, whose appearance is estimated to knock 25 to 30 per cent off house values. Farmers in other fruit-growing counties such as Hampshire, Kent, East and West Sussex and Worcestershire seem certain to face the same hurdles.

Across the country polytunnels have become as controversial as wind turbines and equally divisive. They are either a blot on the landscape or the saviour of the British soft fruit industry.

In Herefordshire there has been concern about the proliferation of the shiny plastic trails along the Wye Valley, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Many local people, including the television gardener Monty Don, believe that it has affected tourism and want farmers to pay more attention to the siting of the tunnels, especially if they are near beauty spots, slopes, streams or footpaths.

In Kent and the coastal belt straddling East and West Sussex, polytunnels are not seen so easily from the road and there are fewer problems.

Countryside campaigners are jubilant at the planning decision and believe that in future tunnels may be banned in important conservation areas.

Tom Oliver, head of rural policy at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “We are pleased with this decision and think there will be problems in future about siting polytunnels in sensitive areas. But what is needed is a national policy statement from the Government so that each planning authority knows what is expected of them. At least there is now some transparency and local people will have a chance to have their say about a tunnel.”

He added: “This is a way of making sure that when polytunnels go up they have public support and on the rare occasions when they should not go up, the reasons are clearly expressed and on the record.”

Growers are angry about the move, however, and the National Farmers’ Union is urgently seeking legal advice with a view to lodging an appeal. It is concerned about the threat to Britain’s soft fruit industry, which is worth more than £300 million a year at retail value.

Herefordshire produces a third of all the soft fruit grown in Britain but 25 established growers fear their future is in jeopardy because they must also apply for retrospective consent for their existing tunnels.

Anthony Snell, chairman of the union’s West Midlands horticulture board, who has nearly 90 acres of polytunnels at Harewood End, south Herefordshire, said: “I am going to have to put in for retrospective planning permission. Now that is going to cost about £20,000 by the time we do various impact assessments. The council wants the applications in at the end of this growing season in the autumn but they have no criteria to judge these applications. It might take them 18 months to sort this out but we have to plan our business. I have invested £750,000 in polytunnels and £750,000 in a new packing house and now it’s a nightmare, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

He is particularly cross because his tunnels have been approved by the council and everything has been within the law. “We are also producing healthy food that is good for the nation. British soft fruit production is a great success story for the UK and polytunnels are part of it,” he said.

Farmers accept that neighbours do not want their views spoilt if they live a secluded valley. The NFU has even developed a code of practice, trialled in Herefordshire and now accepted nationwide, that asks growers to avoid putting polytunnels within 30 metres of a private house.

Herefordshire council said it decided that it had no choice but to give locals a bigger say in decisions on polytunnels.

A spokeswoman said that its approach had been guided by a High Court judgment in December against a polytunnel development on green belt land near Godalming, Surrey. The judge had ruled that planning permission was necessary. Technically the court decision only relates to this site but it was always predicted that local authorities would take it as a precedent. The NFU insists, however, that the council has misinterpreted the law.

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