Since the announcement of Ben Burgess’s plans to site his flagship headquarters and factory on Malthouse Farm, Swainsthorpe we have been fighting a vigorous campaign to stop this abuse of agricultural land. We will continue until we have put a stop to this proposal once and for all. This page is being constantly updated with new articles and news.
10th December 2019
The battle to save Swainsthorpe is reaching a new critical stage and taking so much of our time and limited financial resources.
The planning system is being challenged time and time again by the twisting and turning of Mr Turner and his professional consultants to build his retail outlet and engineering workshop on farm land in the village of Swainsthorpe.
He believes that he will eventually grind the South Norfolk Planners and Committee members into submission and get his way and turn agricultural land into an industrial site, and in so doing destroy ancient landscape, create a dangerous choke point on a corridor of movement.
It is a failure of National Planning that clear violations of planning law are allowed the opportunity to be presented time and time again with amendment after amendment when clear planning guidelines exist.
Mr Turner and his board may be happy to spend thousands on consultants and lawyers to overcome the rules laid down to protect our environment and to repeatedly test the planning system.
However in doing so Mr Turner and his board are costing the planning officers the councils and you and I endless hours of research to respond.
The windfall profits for him of success may justify his expenditure but there is a financial cost to us all in Mr Turner’s ambitions to industrialise Swainsthorpe.
Communities must be protected by local government from those that would destroy ancient landscape and habitat for commercial gain.
Financial ownership does not give anyone the right to destroy and pollute shared environment and it is the job of our local government to enforce and protect the law once and for all, without the fear of punitive financial challenge by wealthy applicants.
One set of rules and one law for the good of all.
We must support and strengthen the power of our planners to uphold that law and ensure that business employs its resources to enhance our shared environment not destroy it.
This is not the Amazon or the Indonesian rain forest, this is our bit of responsibility, our shared rural norfolk in the 21st century and yet we are struggling to save natural landscape ancient farmland and free flowing traffic from financial exploitation.
How dare we criticise others for their failure to stand up for the rule of law and the environment when our own laws do not have teeth and are frequently blunted by commercial interest.
We will shortly be in the hands of the South Norfolk planners and the members of the planning committee and we,along with the hundreds of protestors, neighbouring village parish councils and local farmers will be expecting our 21 st century environmental aspirations to be protected.’
2nd December 2019
Campaign update:
- Although it’s now 18 months since Ben Burgess published it proposals and nearly a year since they applied for planning permission to create their blot on the landscape of our village and still the saga continues
- Throughout this long period the opposition to Ben Burgess’s plans has not faltered, residents and supporters including, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, agree that the company’s plans are simply wrong and, if agreed by the South Norfolk District Council this development would have a devastating and wide ranging impact on our village and would produce traffic chaos on the A140 and feeder roads
- The impact on the roads was recognised by the Highways Agency who raised significant objections to the Company’s proposed traffic entry and exit, the only proposal that the Agency saw any merit in would be the construction of a new roundabout at Stoke Lane, this proposal, solely for the benefit of one company, would be a hugely disruptive and expensive piece of civil engineering, surely there must be better ways to spend public money!
- At the Company’s request submission of a ‘revised’ planning application has now been delayed until December 18th – it remains to be seen whether this submission arrives on that date
- It is to be hoped that the company sees sense and abandons their plan and locates its headquarters in one of the many designated ‘employment ‘ sites in around Norwich
- If they do submit a revised plan to South Norfolk planners then the campaign will alert everyone to the need to continue to put pressure on the process by submitting or re-submitting their objections to the revised plan and be willing to attend council meetings to raise their voice in support of our village.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUING SUPPORT
12th November 2019
CAMPAIGN UPDATE
We are fast approaching another major milestone in our campaign to protect our village from industrialisation by the Ben Burgess Company.
As you may be aware from the South Norfolk District Council’s website page, an extension has been granted for the ‘determination date’ from 23rd September to 18th December to allow for:
‘reviewing the overall proposal as part of the addendum package including the feasibility of further radical changes’ – James Garnham (consultant working for Ben Burgess Ltd)
Consequently, unless they work quickly there is no chance of it going to the South Norfolk Development Management Committee (planning) meeting scheduled for 11th December 2019 so why submit these ‘radical changes’ eight days later? Are we in for yet another application buried in Christmas time when we are all distracted and unlikely to respond?
This cheap manoeuvre didn’t work last year and will not work this year either. The people of Swainsthorpe are united in their opposition to the siting of this development no matter how it is radically changed, tweaked and finessed, it is simply in the wrong place. The only sensible ‘radical’ decision would be to pick it up ‘oven ready!’ and place it on one of the designated employment sites designed to support all the needs of this development.
So, what can you do now?
We have a general election on December 12th there is now no better time to get politician’s attention on constituency issues. Contact the offices of all the parties and register the concerns. Mention the Saving Swainsthorpe campaign, the need to safeguard our countryside and the environment from purely profit driven proposals and the solidarity of opposition to the Ben Burgess Plans. If you are at public events or in conversation with canvassers or party activists raise the concerns with them – powerfully!
Constituency office contacts (currently available) are:
Conservative party office@snca.org.uk 01508 333100
Liberal Democrat party r.carden@btinternet.com 01986788297
Labour party snlabourparty@gmail.com 07920257943
26th September 2019
Ben’s Magic Roundabout.
I am of a generation who remembers the children’s programme ‘The Magic Roundabout’ where good always comes through in the end. I expect Mr Turner and his Board of Directors are the same generation too. Mr Turner has certainly had our village spinning around in circles as his applications to change the use of Malthouse Farm and its agricultural land continue to challenge the quality of life in Swainsthorpe.
He now says that his roundabout plan for Swainsthorpe and the A140 is a ‘done deal’? This roundabout will enable him to access the 35 acres of farming land adjacent to the homes in the village, to create an industrial and retail site bigger than the village foot print. It would completely and utterly result in the redefining of Swainsthorpe and make it part of his industrial complex.
We would love to know who has made such an assurance to Mr Turner to inspire such confidence in a plan which defies all the planning rules for such developments. Perhaps the same person that Mr Turner tells us suggested Swainsthorpe was suitable for industrialisation 6 years ago.
What could be more benign, than a roundabout i hear you ask.
Think again, Dear reader!
Imagine yet another roundabout added onto the already ‘roundabout riddled’ A140 between here and Diss, think of the delays in and out of Norwich and the minutes added to your morning commute.
Imagine the destruction to the local landscape on the edge of the Tas valley.
The Burgess Team have been very active in producing artists impressions of their factory, hiding their industrial building behind trees, and minimising the views of the 1000 year old village behind it.So in the spirit of fairness and balance we have tried to show you what this really means. We have overlaid aerial photographs of the Hempnal roundabout works on to the proposed area of the Burgess roundabout at Stoke and Hickling lanes.You can see from this image the reality of works of this scale.
Imagine – The collateral damage to countryside and wildlife – it is immense. We have shown the footprint of the damage caused by this work and also a small part of the land levelling and grading that will follow. The loss of ancient Oaks and hedges and habitat.
Imagine – the cost to the infrastructure of the A140, and the villages of Swainsthorpe and others down the road.
Imagine – the foul drainage needed to support more than 100 people and the industrial cleaning. The land drainage infrastructure, the disruption to the fibre-optic broadband networks serving the villages on the A140; the power lines and networks and site illumination. Plus all the electrical, water and sewerage substations. Will this be at our cost too?
And all for what – one private company, 6 private shareholders to access and change the planning status of Food Producing Farm Land to Industrial, and in the process make huge untaxed windfall profits.
It may be the ‘Magic Roundabout’ for the directors of Ben Burgess Ltd if the project gets the go ahead, but for the people of South Norfolk who rely on this corridor of movement, it will
be an expensive disaster making the A140 into an extremely difficult, and increasingly dangerous route.
For the people of Swainsthorpe it will be the ugly polluting ‘Trojan Horse’ that allows this appalling scheme to destroy this ancient Norfolk village.
We will be hoping that Norfolk Highways and the National Highways agency will protect this ‘corridor of movement’ into Norwich and NOT provide the excuse to Mr Turner to complete his destruction of our village community.
Perhaps good, will indeed come through in the end, and Mr Turner will keep on turning around his magic roundabout and take a responsible step to place Ben Burgess Limited onto designated industrial development land where the business can grow and prosper for many years to come.
21st September 2019
The Thin End of the Wedge.
The Saving Swainsthorpe campaign taken in isolation may not be considered important to many people.
It is a small Norfolk village fighting a big determined developer and it is a story seen over and over again throughout East Anglia and the country as a whole.
This is however different, this application is the setting of a new precedent
In this case the developer has deliberately purchased a farm with the full intention of developing it for other uses. In this case industrial engineering, housing and retail.
This quite literally is the’ thin end of a wedge’ which if successful will be a precedent and will open the flood gates throughout the rural landscape for the loss of farms and farming land. The country cannot afford to lose productive land, it cannot afford to lose habitat, it cannot afford to lose the eco-systems that create the balance that keeps our environment healthy and the wellbeing of those that inhabit it.
We are quick to criticise other areas of the world for not looking after their rural landscape, whilst failing to protect our own.
The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) has been a tremendous support and valued defender of the countryside. They have written an extensive report in support of Swainsthorpe and against its Industrialisation.
Swainsthorpe may appear a small issue to the Politicians, but we are fighting for something far bigger. We are fighting for the future of the towns and villages and the wellbeing of all.
Most of all we are fighting for the Town and Country Planners to be given teeth so that they can fight on behalf of villagers and rural communities to resist commercial pressure from developers with big pockets and the politicians trying to balance short term accounts.
In the words of Mr Andrew Proctor the Leader of Norfolk Council, ‘we live in a world class environment’. Our Country and County is rich in God given assets and we rely upon our planners and politicians to protect the wellbeing and environment now and for future generations.
Let us be clear the Ben Burgess factory is for today’s technology, who knows where we will be in 20 years time when the diesel tractors have gone and the petrol machinery no longer need maintenance. It will be a different world.
One thing we do know is that if this factory is built, the Swainsthorpe Fields that have been producing for 1000 years will be destroyed forever.
Small campaigns have a habit of growing into something far bigger and more important in the countryside. And whilst our Campaign team does not wish to emulate the fate of Robert Kett or Watt Tyler we would like to hope that Saving Swainsthorpe will become the axiom upon which rural communities may challenge the right of developers to destroy our rural environment.
19th September 2019
NOT ANGRY JUST SAD
Walking in the village we saw an extraordinary sight; it was a male driving what looked like a brand-new shiny tractor, he was dressed in shirt and tie with a face like thunder. On second glance we realised it was non other then Ben Turner the managing director of Ben Burgess Ltd. Why we asked ourselves is he driving a tractor and looking so cross?
Later we learnt that his sole purpose for driving the tractor was to plough up the permissive path running alongside the railway across the arable green fields on which he wants to create his 11.51 ha site. There was no mistaking his intent, as the fields had previously been harvested leaving a wide margin as has been the practice for many years.
Why would he jump up from a desk grab a tractor drive to Swainsthorpe and plough up the one and only social amenity mentioned in his planning application? It can’t be to prepare the ground for a country stewardship agreement because the margins of the field must be left untouched.
Surely it can’t be a fit of pique or some spiteful revenge because the people of Swainsthorpe are not supporting his plans. This is a grown man not a child he is the managing director of a prestigious business, but just in case it was a stupid act let’s get something straight.
You are taking your anger out on the wrong people.
It is NOT the fault of Swainsthorpe residents that you bought Malthouse Farm and its land in 2016, possibly with some tacit agreement that there would be no problem for your development. Neither Swainsthorpe Parish Council or Swainsthorpe residents were approached or knew anything of your plans, or we could have told you then, we would not be able to support them.
It is NOT the fault of Swainsthorpe residents that your self-inflicted criteria for identifying a suitable site are so stringent it renders finding a suitable site impossible.
It is NOT the fault of Swainsthorpe residents that South Norfolk District Council, Norfolk County Council and all the land agents could not come up with an alternative site that suited you.
It is NOT the fault of Swainsthorpe residents that the A140 is a corridor of movement, exceedingly busy at certain times of day and destined to become busier because of all the housing developments along its length.
It is NOT the fault of Swainsthorpe residents that the Highways Authority have deep concerns about the access to and from your proposed site.
It is NOT the fault of Swainsthorpe residents that you want to build on arable green fields, covering them in concrete forever.
It is NOT the fault of Swainsthorpe residents that they wish to protect their village and surrounding environment. That they care about the wildlife and country rhythms which they do not wish to see destroyed.
It is NOT the fault of Swainsthorpe residents that Hickling Lane and the fields adjoining are sites of historic and archaeological interest.
It is NOT the fault of Swainsthorpe residents that where you have chosen to put your development obscures and detracts from the views of the ancient Church of St Peter.
It is NOT the fault of Swainsthorpe residents that they will fight for the protection of their village and other Norfolk villages under similar threats.
We could go on and on but hopefully you will have got the message by now that
IT IS NOT THE FAULT OF SWAINSTHORPE RESIDENTS THAT YOU HAVE CHOSEN THE WRONG PLACE FOR YOUR DEVELOPMENT, SO WHY TAKE YOUR ANGER AND FRUSTRATION OUT ON DOG WALKERS, THE ELDERLY, CHILDREN AND FAMILIES THAT HAVE BEEN ENJOYING THIS PERMISSIVE PATH FOR YEARS.
Why as a responsible managing director did you shoot yourself in the foot in showing the residents of Swainsthorpe and the planning committee that you had no intention of maintaining the permissive path? Now with this one selfish act, how can anyone believe anything in your planning application or have any faith in you as a local landowner.
So, Ben Turner we are not angry just sad.
16th September 2019
COMING SOON…
‘The Magic Roundabout’
2nd September 2019
TURNING PLOUGHSHARES INTO WEAPONS.
There is something very wrong with our countryside planning when we have to fight so hard to save it from exploitation. The struggle that we are having in Swainsthorpe against a determined developer (Ben Burgess Ltd) has been out of all proportion. It is little wonder that the Norfolk that we love is being eroded; the odds are stacked against the defenders of the countryside from the outset.
Most ordinary village people want to concentrate on living their lives, bringing up their children and looking after the elderly. This is community, this good neighbourliness. This is the social glue and magic of community that creates wellbeing.
We should not have to be the ultimate defenders of the environment, this has to be in the hands of those we entrust and fund with power and technical resource in local government.
We do not expect the Tribes of the rain forest of Brazil on their own to prevent its destruction, we expect governments to act on their behalf. And so it is with the rural villages of Norfolk.
Our planners and politicians are there to protect the greater good and oversee the precious resources with which we are entrusted. In particular they are there for the overall welfare of our South Norfolk Community
Here in Swainsthorpe we are not threatened by forest fires like Brazil, but we do face something equally destructive to our village and our wellbeing. Wellbeing is increasingly not a word used in our modern planning considerations. We have no department for wellbeing but we do have them for economic development, human welfare it seems is secondary to economics.
27th August 2019
Malthouse Farm further development:
A special meeting of our Parish Council was held last week to discuss yet another application for the development of Malthouse farm by Mr Ben Turner on behalf of Ben Burgess Limited.
The details of this application for 5 more houses to be used for rental purposes speak for themselves. Mr Turner admitted that further applications for the development of more houses on this site would follow and so the planning system is being drip fed bit by bit with more and more development. This cynical approach means that each small application eventually leads to a large one which on its own would never have been approved.
This is misleading, clever, or dishonest depending upon your viewpoint, but what we would argue is that it is designed to avoid scrutiny and control. We have already seen retrospective planning applied to this development and work taking place without the proper environmental impacts being considered. It is as always, brutal, inadequate and without regard to the professional planners of South Norfolk.
But most of all it is without regard for the wellbeing of those that will live in those houses directly on to the A140, the users of the A140 and the people of Swainsthorpe. This will be a dangerous place to live when so many residents have only their cars as a means to vacate the site. Therefore marooned unless they take their life in their own (or their children’s} hands and attempt to walk up the side and cross the A140)
Mr Turner told the Parish Council that these building were redundant; indeed they are since he has owned them but they were not 5 years ago when this was a working farm. They could have been working again. This is grade A land on the Tas valley; this is an appalling abuse of resource, landscape and environment for commercial gain.
Footpaths:
Remember the circular footpath much used by dog walkers that would continue to run alongside the railway and the back of the proposed new HQ for Ben Burgess Ltd? Clearly marked in the planning application (2018/2631) – say goodbye to it. Mr Ben Turner made it clear that he intends to remove it under the guise of EU environmental protection and if this fails will ‘plough it up’ so much for respecting residents of Swainsthorpe and their access to any amenity. This clearly shows the approach this organisation intends to take to residents of Swainsthorpe. Another example was when the footpath warden asked if a permissive path would be developed from the back of the Malthouse Farm development down to the River Tas (readers may recall the previous owners of Malthouse Farm had guided walks here) the answer from Mr Ben Turner was a firm ‘NO!’.
Mr Turner’s Ben Burgess is doing what we always expected and the much trumpeted amenity footpath in their factory application has disappeared, along with the bats and wildlife on Malthouse farm.
Mr Turner said on arrival at the Parish Council meeting ‘We have come along to spoil your fun.’ Footpaths, wildlife and wellbeing – he is certainly spoiling a lot more than ‘fun’ in Swainsthorpe!
27th August 2019
MALTHOUSE FARM – MORE HOUSES PLANNED!
URGENT ACTION NEEDED!
Time to make your voices heard again
Not content with his planning permission to convert the farmhouse and erect one more house on the site, Ben Turner is now applying to convert all the old agricultural buildings into FIVE MORE HOUSES.
Ten dwellings generate a minimum of 60 vehicle movements per day to and from the A140.
The parish council has already objected strongly that no ecology survey was done before the renovation of the main part of the farmhouse , only when signs of bats were found in the old part of the building. That survey said the chances were that the roosts were in the barns.
There is no ecology survey with this new application to renovate those barns.
Huge earthworks were undertaken previously without planning permission and may already have caused ecological destruction.
Nor is there a contaminated land assessment.
Nor is there proof that these buildings are not viable for agricultural use, as required.
This development is once again outside of development boundaries, contrary to policy.
Mr Turner and his development company are again showing contempt for the rules and contempt for this village. They seem to think they are outside the law.
The Parish Council is holding a planning meeting in the church on Thursday 29th August at 7:30pm
Please make your objections known on line at South Norfolk Planning.
The application number is 2019/1641.
27th August 2019
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS !
“All the things Bright and beautiful all creatures great and small”. In the words of that lovely hymn, this is a wonderful time of year when nature’s bounty is in the hedgerows and fields around us and we can celebrate the gifts that we have been given.
The Swainsthorpe fields have been bountiful for 1000 years yielding crops to feed our nation.
Malthouse farm to which these fields attached has given us excellent beef, chicken, eggs and Turkeys too. How sad we have been to see this go under new ownership, and production stop and be replaced by concrete mixers.
Now in the continued march of Mr Turner’s Ben Burgess Company, the very fields of Swainsthorpe have been earmarked for destruction and industrialisation. Malthouse Farm will cease to exist.
These images of the harvest are not historic, they are Swainsthorpe NOW. This is a NORFOLK harvest coming in this week from the very land that Mr Turner believes he has a right under ownership to destroy. We are all guardians for a very short time on this earth and we have a duty to our children to protect and not destroy.
The people of Swainsthorpe have been asking for more than a year for the Ben Burgess Company to give up their plans for this wholesale destruction of countryside and move to a designated industrial location assisted by South Norfolk District Council. These poorly constructed and brutal plans break every objective of modern planning law, and we must support our Council officers to resist commercial and political pressures.
If we want a country worth living in, people and nature must be respected. It’s what our planning laws are designed for. They are not barriers designed to be tested, manipulated and challenged by developers threatening appeal and financial burden on those that stand in their way.
The late Mr Ben Burgess the founder of the Company was a great man and highly respected. We are not in conflict with agricultural engineering which is a noble profession, but this crushing and brutal drive at all cost to establish this dealership here is fundamentally wrong, and everyone knows it.
Today on Malthouse farm Swainsthorpe, the cattle may have stopped lowing, the chickens may have stopped laying and the Turkeys may have stopped Gobbling and the Harvester now silent after its work has been done.
Silence is however not an option for the residents of Swainsthorpe and the users of the A140.
We will not be silenced in the defence of Swainsthorpe and all that it stands for; we will continue to protest at the industrialisation and permanent destruction of this working farm.
SWAINSTHORPE WILL NOT GO QUIETLY LIKE A LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER!
7th August 2019
Still under siege
August 2019-One year on and still the village of Swainsthorpe remains under siege.
Mr Ben Turner and his Ben Burgess Company continue to plan to industrialise the agricultural fields bordering the A140 and the ancient community of Swainsthorpe.
The threat posed by this planning application has blighted our lives since the objectives of Mr Turner were made public in the spring of 2018.
We hear that he still plans to take his application to the committee in September despite the negative views of Norfolk highways and the environmental bodies.
We hear that he is producing yet more amended plans to add like sticking plasters to his wounded scheme, and No doubt once again we will have limited time to react to these manoeuvring’s.
So more work, more study for the village and the poor planners.
Why is our District Council not strong enough to say NO to this appalling scheme, and help move this application to a planned industrial development site?
Instead it is allowing this application to proceed despite so much public outrage against it. This proposal will damage so many for the benefit of the few.
The village of Swainsthorpe has been struggling with this for over a year and the surrounding Parishes and users of the A140 have made it abundantly clear that we do not want this factory in this sensitive and difficult location.
9 Parish Councils using the A140 for access to Norwich are against this application and hundreds of free independent letters of opposition have been written. Yet the interests of one company and six private shareholders trump all other democratic interests. Our combined rates are considerable and we do wonder what it is that makes the interest of this one company so important, when so many practical, sensible and planned alternatives exist.
More than 2000 regular followers of our campaign also watch with interest and curiosity at the way Mr Ben Turner continues to press his case with such confidence in the outcome when so much seems to say this is environmentally legally and civically wrong.
The irony and curiosity is made even more infuriating when one sees the billboards opposite Tesco with invitation to business to purchase industrial land close to the Ipswich road roundabout. A site large enough to match the size of the Swainsthorpe fields, with bus station hub links next door, shops and canteen facilities, and easy access on to the A140 and southern by pass yards from the site. This high profile site is even closer to their existing site, not bordering habitation and little less than 2 miles from the Swainsthorpe ‘protected’ productive agricultural land and village.
If this applicant is allowed to fly in the face of the planning laws and destroy this village, this environment, this countryside, principally for planning gain, he will not only have destroyed forever this place but also the laws that have been put in place to protect our environment our communities and infrastructure. Laws made by professional planners to protect Norfolk.
A dam will indeed be breached if we fail to stop this. It will be much more than Swainsthorpe that is lost. It will be open season for rural South Norfolk and we will all be flooded by inappropriate profit led development.
We must all act and act now, we will not give up this fight we owe it to the environment and future generations of Norfolk people.
31st May 2019
A member of The Brooke Village page has commented to say the following:In case you are not aware. An adult bird goes back to the same location to lay its eggs. When these hedges and trees are removed not only have we lost the beauty but we have also lost plants that help with the Co2 in the air… not content with that we also lose a year supply of fledglings as the females ingest their eggs, they do not move on for another year… That is a terrible knock-on effect that nature can never make up.
31st May 2019
** STOP PRESS ** STOP PRESS ** STOP PRESS**
The planning application submitted by the Ben Burgess Company to South Norfolk Planning department has been awaiting a report from Highways reference access to and from the proposed Ben Burgess Factory Site in Swainsthorpe.
This report has now arrived and it states that they are NOT happy with the proposal for a roundabout at the southern end, close to the village, nor are they happy with an additional ghost island as a means of access to the site.
Ben Burgess Limited may now be examining the feasibility of a 5 exit roundabout off Hickling Lane and Stoke road. Hence the lads with the theodolite recently seen surveying the location!
Watch out South Norfolk Planners, more paperwork is on the way!!!
It is likely that this Highways comment on the current plan for access to the site will significantly delay the application. We do however expect the unexpected with this application and will remain vigilant until the countryside and our local heritage is secure.
The Saving Swainsthorpe Campaign team will remain active on behalf of the village and the local area.
Should an emergency planning meeting be brought forward a notice will also be posted on this Facebook page and our Twitter feed. If you are on our email contact list, you will be notified by email directly.
This enormous structural engineering endeavour and disruption to village life and the lives and business users on the A140 beggars belief, just for the benefit of one private company.
ENJOY THE VIEW, 1000 YEARS UNCHANGED UNTIL 2019?
Driving back to Swainsthorpe yesterday evening I was struck by the fact that this view is likely soon to disappear. I stopped and pulled into the old Roman road (Hickiing lane) so that I might share a couple of pictures with you.
The fields producing food in the foreground will be converted into concrete, steel and machinery within months. The old established trees will be gone and replaced by industrial advertising. The high banks bordering the road, which currently act as a noise barrier, will be levelled to make way for a roundabout to serve the industrial site.The ancient hedges and trees dividing the two fields will be grubbed out and the trees felled.
I hear that the surveyors have been out with their theodolites taking measurements within the last few days preparing yet more plans. More plans and more amendments to present to South Norfolk Planners in an attempt to bury the poor souls in information. I do hope the SNP have good recycling facilities, the weight of the documents from Ben Burgess that we have to wade through has been extraordinary.
The Burgess consultants joked that they would ruin our Christmas with all the reading that we would have to do. How wrong, we love a good read in Swainsthorpe albeit science fiction! We have analysed every last word, I doubt however that the Planners feel the same but still nobody in authority says this has gone on long enough.
Our planning laws must be strengthened and planners supported if we are to fulfil the ideals that are so often spoken. Green countryside, protected landscapes, managed environments, these are not empty words. These are what we vote for in the 21st century. The average person wants to enhance and protect our rural places, not to exploit and destroy them. The world is changing and we demand better.
Using tax payer’s money the County of Norfolk has created sites and space for industry and we have an unused surplus, Burgess Limited should be helped and encouraged on to them
The Leader of Norfolk County Council, Mr Andrew Proctor recognises ‘that Norfolk is a world class environment’. Let us join him in ensuring that these high ideals are supported.
These images show the last crop unless you act and make your voice heard. Do not leave it to others. The Burgess team are still very active building their case for the destruction of our village.
We have no time to waste, and there is so very much at stake. This precious Norfolk landscape must be saved. This case is important for all our rural villages and spaces.
30th May 2019
To Directors of Ben Burgess Ltd and their political supporters
It’s time to listen
• 9 Parish councils on the A140 object to your plans
• 98% of the residents of Swainsthorpe object to your plans
• 400 letters of complaint have been written against your plans
• The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE Norfolk) objects to your plans
• Countless planning laws and precedents are contrary to your plans
• Common sense objects to these plans
• Nature itself objects to these plans!
So many people including, academics, environmentalists, professional and local people have written thousands of words against your plan; all of which have been given freely and without charge, by contrast, your consultants have been paid ‘to fit a square peg into a round hole.’ Their contribution to your planning application makes a mockery and flies in the face of logic and wider planning objectives. The only sense it makes is that your plans provide very cheap mis-use of productive agricultural land, is this really all that matters to you?
Your plans, without political support from leaders of South Norfolk District Council, would have been turned down at the pre-application stage of development.
But remember, as Abraham Lincoln said ‘you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.’
This travesty has gone on long enough, and the Board of Ben Burgess should recognise the anger this has caused and realise that this will never be right and the controversial site will remain a constant problem for you, a thorn in the company’s side and a catastrophe for Swainsthorpe and users of the A140.
Remember also that a reputations take a long time to nurture but can be very easily destroyed. If your plans are implemented Ben Burgess and, by implication the John Deere brand, will become known as the companies that ruined and re-defined our village and our daily lives, purely for commercial gain and corporate vanity. If your plans are implemented, the ‘Burgess blockage’ and the ‘John Deere’ delay will become descriptors of the daily A140 commute.
We cannot and will not give up the resistance to your plans, we live here! So this level of conflict can and will only get worse.
The destruction of a 1000 year old village will have a large advertising sign above it, measuring 38 ft long and illuminated like a fairground, additionally there will be 23 ft. high flags with banners saying John Deere now lives here. They will be illuminated 24/7 destroying the night sky. Surely, Norfolk is worth more than that. If this goes through no village will be safe and a precedent will be set.
We ask again for the Board of Ben Burgess to show wisdom and respect village life upon which the agricultural community of Norfolk is based and through which your company earns its living. Please reconsider and choose the responsible path and site your new headquarters on a dedicated industrial site provided by the District Council.
If you listen and do this you will be applauded and respected for your action and responsibility in preserving a rural landscape and farming community, not least by the villagers and villages and towns in Norfolk.
27th May 2019
THE ANGRY DAWN CHORUS OF SWAINSTHORPE
I awoke early this morning.
The threat to our village is weighing heavily on my mind.
Nobody is listening to our case and little Swainsthorpe’s fate lies in the hands of Ben Burgess Limited and his supporters who have had years to prepare their assault on Swainsthorpe and an endless budget.
With Burgess Directors writing they have ‘the Councils Blessing’ to develop an industrial site on agricultural land in Swainsthorpe things appear to be already decided and look bleak.
Ben Burgess Limited is able to spend 10’s of thousands on his planning consultants and advisors to interpret the rules and convince a pro development South Norfolk Planning committee that his plan is good for South Norfolk and Swainsthorpe.
We have little to protect us, our voice alone, is just 300 souls.
As I pondered this, thousands of voices were raised outside.
Voices that share our village life, clean air and night sky, trees and hedgerows. Voices who will also be silenced by the Burgess industrial site with its 24 hr light pylons and flags, and industrial activity and detritus.
It was of course our wonderful dawn chorus, those thousands of wildlife residents that these plans also threaten.
This morning they sound as if they are not singing but protesting at the loss of their environment to the march of industry on our shared rural landscape home. WAKE UP RURAL NORFOLK !!!
Next time you pass through Swainsthorpe, look across at the ancient hedges that divide the fields and the trees that surround the site, the Oaks, the Ash, the Chestnuts, they are all homes just as much as yours.
If Ben Burgess Limited Directors have their way within weeks they will all be gone, roadside banks ripped apart, hedges grubbed out, trees felled, and thousands of tonnes of concrete steel buildings and new roadworks closer to the residents.
The night sky lost, the owls no longer quartering, the Kites no longer calling, the black birds and song birds silent. Replaced only by industrial buildings, and imported foreign hardware and the steady thrum of diesel from the factory and workshops and the blocked A140 as people try to negotiate through the ‘Burgess Bungage’ and ‘John Deere delay’ on the Burgess roundabout – or block the country roads to seek alternative routes.
If Swainsthorpe dies, it will be our fault. We will not have spoken loudly enough.
This application sets a nationally important planning precedent for the future of all England’s rural places. Rural England must be protected. It is each generations responsibility to the next.
Our Grandchildren will have no countryside if you do not join us to create our own dawn chorus screeching NO. This development must not happen.
Your village will be open season to the next developer if we do not give strength to our planning officers. You could be next.
In a final note of bloody irony it is 5am my phone dings it’s a message from a friend –
Had I seen the planning application 2018/1318 for our neighbouring village of Flordon?
They face a similar development which is causing distress to residents and damage to their environment.
It speaks of heavy Lorries, broken promises, background noise pollution disturbed residents. Ground levelling works lorry loads of hardcore, earth banks, damage to a special site of scientific interest.
It talks of damage to the very sensitive eco system and the free movement of indigenous fauna.
It talks of increased use of mains water for washing down equipment and discharge of waste water affecting the area Hydrology .
It talks also of the working hours being abused.
The letter so comprehensive in its objection struck great sympathy for the distress it was causing our friends and neighbours in lovely Flordon. It could easily have been written for Swainsthorpe.
The letter of objection was written by a Mr Peter Lockhart, who happens to be the Depot Director and Board member of Ben Burgess Limited, the very company making the decisions to carry out the self-same acts of destruction upon his neighbours in Swainsthorpe.
We have sincere sympathy for Mr Lockhart and his family.
This distress is invading our homes too with the Ben Burgess Limited plans and takes away peace from our lives.
It does come over as a rather selfish and hypocritical position to take, on one hand to save his environment and the other to participate in the decision to destroy ours.
For what – the profit of 6 shareholders and an American Multi National company.
Let’s hope that the Dividends from the profits of the destruction of Swainsthorpe make it worth it, Mr Lockhart.
At your next Board meeting under’ any other business’ dare I suggest you table a motion – Do unto others as you would have done unto you.
Please lets share our countryside, manage and protect it, it is priceless and fragile.
For the good of us ALL!
Saving Swainsthorpe Campaign
23rd May 2019
29th April 2019
27th April 2019
Precious little time for Swainsthorpe.
We are aware of the heavy work load of the council in handling planning matters and that representations to the committee have to be time limited.
The fate of a 900 year old Norfolk Village is, however, far too important to leave it to 5 minutes in a public meeting.
To decide the fate of a village like Swainsthorpe and causing it’s community such anxiety for the last 12 months and to lose it’s identity is a responsibility that deserves more.
The peaceful village life for 360 souls will be exchanged for the financial benefit of 6 private shareholders and a foreign company who will take 80% of the turnover outside of the UK.
Is our natural asset, history and heritage worth just 5 brief minutes of South Norfolk Council’s time?
21st March 2019
4th March 2019
LET’S GET REAL
The artists impression of the Ben Burgess site from their planning application, is not only farcical it is also an insult to the Planners and Councillors to whom it has been sent.
Let’s be honest, agricultural engineering is a noble profession. But, it is heavy engineering, big wheels, big diesels and big kit of all kinds.
Hiding it behind a bush doesn’t make it any less industrial, smelly, noisy or mechanical.
Mr Turner continues to take Swainsthorpe and the District Council for fools, confident in the belief that his business rates will be so important he can write his own ticket.
The ongoing contempt and manipulation by Ben Burgess Limited of the planning system and the Councillors continues, from Malthouse farm to the fields by the village with little care for the rules and even less for the people of Swainsthorpe.
28th February 2019
Digging the Dirt
Six months after being stopped by Planning Officers for carrying out unauthorised earthworks on the Malthouse Farm site, Ben Burgess Limited have now decided to put in a retrospective planning application.
After tons of concrete have been poured and hundreds of tons of subsoil removed, the application does not address why, or what they are up to?
So we ask – is this part of a further industrialisation process of Swainsthorpe?
Mr Turner, Managing Director of Ben Burgess Ltd told our Parish Council the following,
It was:
1. A levelling exercise.
2. Hay storage.
3. Ground source heat pump.
3 very different reasons.
Would it be unreasonable to be told the truth, or will this jeopardise the Burgess strategy for the forthcoming planning meeting?
Without permission, work started here in May 2018. It was reported to the planning department of South Norfolk council on two separate occasions by the Parish Council. On the second occasion work was halted (too late) after many tons of concrete had been placed
We note; that tons of subsoil have been taken from the site and dragged through the village only to be dumped on a public footpath rendering it unusable. This has had to be reported to Norfolk county council on two occasions.
We note: the loss of habitat on the Malthouse farm site through removal of buildings infrastructure, was this to avoid awkward questions maybe about bats?
The residents of Swainsthorpe are angered by the way that Mr Turner appears to be above the law in South Norfolk and likes to give the impression he has inside influence and will get what he wants.
Ben Burgess Limited interprets land stewardship and good neighbourliness entirely differently to us it seems.
The photos show the site before and after earth movements that have taken place. Make no mistake the amount of earth and soil removed, without permission, is extreme.
LOVE LETTERS TO SWAINSTHORPE
We are struck by the quality and passion of the letters of opposition to the Ben Burgess Ltd Plan for Swainsthorpe and hope when the time comes for analysis that the Councillors and Planners read them!
If the statements are simply weighed in, they will miss the fact that all the letters FOR the application do not mention Swainsthorpe at all.
They do rightly say Burgess needs a new HQ, and we agree, that is not in contention.
By contrast, the defence of the village and opposition comes from villagers directly attacked by this plan.
People who will lose the night sky to Burgess security lighting and advertising; who lose the peaceful mornings as the 120 cars arrive for work ; as the tractors cough in to life; as the engines get tested and the engineers knock and grind their ploughshares into another working day. The people whose homes look out upon these now open fields, and rural life.
These letters are backed by learned authorities, who believe that this is wrong and against all that planning law and society wants. They are placing weight and knowledge and moral authority behind this objection.
Our cause is right, not just for Swainsthorpe, but the whole of South Norfolk, and for Norfolk in general.
The threat to our county has never been greater and amazingly, it is a threat from within by those giving lip service to quality of life and care for our landscape and environment, using political aspiration to reshape our county.
Based on these short term political objectives such careless policies are a permanent, ‘road to ruin’ and unsustainable short term fixes. We must have the courage to say STOP.
The response from the General Public to this plan has been uplifting.
Despite the difficulty of access to South Norfolk’s badly organised internet portal, determined people have written with passion and intelligence against this Burgess plan.
When added to the GNLP letters, which also refer to the Burgess industrialisation, more than 300 letters have been sent from concerned Norfolk people against this
Letters written by young and old willingly, and independently, without pressure or persuasion because they are deeply offended.
This by contrast to the SUPPORTERS, who are paid employees or beneficiaries of financial gain from the applicant, and under written request to write support, in an attempt to drown out the anguished voice of residents
The politicians would do well to read the objections before they ‘wave this through’ and to note that this opposition comes from hundreds of free thinking people and residents located in the village and A140 corridor. Doctors, Nurses, Police, teachers, farmers and landowners, businessmen and woman and of course everyone a voter.
We are very very angry indeed that South Norfolk Council has allowed our lives to be turned upside down. Our environment is being threatened by a misguided thoughtless and greedy executive decision from a rich private limited company, to destroy a working farm and our lives in the village of Swainsthorpe.
The Leader of South Norfolk Council has a duty to us all and has failed notably in protecting the welfare and wellbeing of its citizens here.
This land is protected by enough of his own policies and moral, environmental values, to have had choked this idea at birth.
Why wasn’t that done?
We will never give this fight up, no stone will be left unturned, and we will never allow this destruction to be forgotten.
Saving Swainsthorpe Campaign
11th February 2019
With 98% of the village in opposition to the Ben Burgess factory being built next to the village of Swainsthorpe the position of the residents is not in contention.
Despite this the planning statement put forward by Ben Burgess on the 28th January 2019 stated wrongly that the village is largely in support of the plan.
Ben Burgess seem to be determined to completely ignore the truth that 98% of the village is firmly against their destruction of this countryside.
Throughout the village signs and banners of opposition have been erected against the plan. A village meeting to oppose the project was strongly supported by more than 100 Swainsthorpe residents.
We have also learned that Ben Burgess directors have written to their employees asking them to write, along with their families and friends to South Norfolk Council in support of the Burgess plans for Swainsthorpe.
The objective of drowning out our village voice is dramatically seen in the attached diagrams showing clearly that supporting letters for Burgess come from a long way away from the land and village that they are intent on destroying. Simply put, these Burgess supporters have no idea of the life or the environment of Swainsthorpe that they are voting to destroy and have probably never ever been here.
It seems that someone is determined one way or another that the voice and views of this village must not be heard .
The business interests of six private shareholders it seems, are worth more than the homes and welfare of 170 homes and families in Swainsthorpe.
It is essential that we defend the democratic process, the thing that spooks politicians even more than the ‘party line’ is the ballot box. You might consider this when casting your voter at the May local government elections.
25th January 2019
This would be a disaster on the A140.
Have your say – send your objections to South Norfolk Council now. Deadline is the 7th Feb.
30th January 2019
More than 100 residents attended the latest meeting of the Saving Swainsthorpe campaign group which was held in partnership with the Swainsthorpe Parish council.
Mrs Glyn Frost, Chair of the Parish Council opened the meeting with a summary of the planning procedure and the vital part that the Parish Council would be playing in representing the democratic voice of Swainsthorpe in the next stage. At the invitation of Mrs Frost our district Councillor Phil Hardy spoke about the planning procedure and the steps that the application would go through.
The final presentation of the evening was given by Mr Rob Parkinson from the Saving Swainsthorpe Campaign. Rob gave a summary of the action taken by the campaign since July. First by attending to the GNLP proposals which threatened to allow the Swainsthorpe fields to be industrialised via the back door. The village and local area response was excellent with an overwhelming rejection of the Burgess proposals.
The GNLP will be considered at the end of this year by Norfolk County Council. Rob went on to explain that we needed to repeat the consultation process again with South Norfolk and the importance of full community involvement. Every body in the village has to make their voice heard.
It was very clear from the audience that people are worried and anxious by this assault on our homes and lives.
Directors of Ben Burgess refer to the objections as coming from a “few villagers” and that the feedback from Swainsthorpe “is broadly positive”.
Let us make it clear to the Board of Ben Burgess and South Norfolk Council that more than 98% are totally against this awful plan.
We live here, we breath this air, and we will hear the industry and loose our dark night sky. We are united in our efforts as we recognise that nothing less than the existence of this rural community is at stake.
The meeting was concluded with a rousing call for support for the campaign and a request for financial support to aid the professional services needed to oppose the Burgess consultants.
Finally Mr Turner the managing director of Ben Burgess attended our meeting he saw and heard our concerns. He was also treated with respect by the good people of Swainsthorpe.
Please act now and send your objections to South Norfolk Council. The planning application reference number is 2018/2631.
You can write to the case officer, Chris Watts via post: South Norfolk Council, South Norfolk House, Cygnet Court
Long Stratton, Norwich, NR15 2XE
or via email cwatts@s-norfolk.gov.uk
Alternatively, follow the link attached to this post, which should take you directly to the website.
Let’s get as many objections to this plan as we can!
https://info.south-norfolk.gov.uk/on…/applicationDetails.do…
https://www.gofundme.com/saving-swainsthorpe…
