Bury Farm, Cupid Green Lane, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire

Application No. 20/03295/FUL

One barn and one polytunnel at Bury Farm, Cupid Green Lane, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

We are puzzled about aspects of this application for a barn and polytunnel in the Green Belt.

This site is Plot 1 of six into which the original field was subdivided in 2016, prompting the Council to impose an Article 4 Direction to prevent “very significant harm to this very sensitive rural / Green Belt landscape.” That Article 4 Direction was renewed in 2019 (19/022895/ART).

In January 2018 the Council gave approvals for the construction of an agricultural building, a polytunnel and an access track on this site. (Applications Nos. 4/00143/18/FUL;
4/00144/18/FUL and 4/00145/18/FUL). We note that the applicant for this current application is different and assume that the land has changed hands, but the earlier approvals
remain extant.

We are concerned that, while the Application Form description of the current proposal is “One Barn and one polytunnel”, the title page of the Planning Statement refers to polytunnels and on page 10 to “the cluster of proposed polytunnels” (there are in fact ten references to polytunnels in the plural throughout the document.) This suggest an intent to go beyond the approvals already given. The Council should clarify this before determining the application.