A care farm for disabled and disadvantaged people on the outskirts of Bristol has won planning permission, despite an alleged “hate campaign” against it, writes Amanda Cameron.

Maria Needs, who founded charity Empowering Futures, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it had taken five years for the organisation to find and buy land for the care farm in the village of Hambrook.

Their plans to use the farmland near Bury Hill to teach vulnerable children  and adults agricultural and craft skills were supported by 105 residents and unanimously approved by a planning committee last week.

But Mrs Needs said afterwards she felt “broken” by local opposition to the plans, which she claimed involved a “hate campaign” by a handful of local families.

She was also angry and upset about the imposition of planning conditions she said were too expensive for the charity to afford.

The charity’s plans for a 10m-long polytunnel and 4m-high building at Moorend Farm were opposed by 17 residents, Winterbourne Parish Council, and a local councillor, who told the planning meeting the development would “blight the local landscape”.

The objectors raised concerns about the effect of the care farm on the Green Belt, traffic, people’s enjoyment of the countryside, and their views of an ancient hill fort on Bury Hill to the north.

Due to the proximity of the Iron Age hill fort, South Gloucestershire Council imposed a condition on the planning consent requiring the charity to develop, submit and abide by a council-approved “programme of archaeological investigation and recording for the site”.

Mrs Needs said that would mean paying an archaeologist £200 to £500 a day to oversee the building works and sift through the soil as the foundations for the building were laid.

“That’s just impossible,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. “I’m really angry. They are penalising disabled people.”

Mrs Needs said she was unsure how the charity would overcome the planning requirement, but she was determined to ensure the care farm would continue at the Hambrook site.

The planning committee heard heartfelt pleas from the charity and others who support its work at its meeting on Thursday, January 6.

Lorna Carter-Stevens, from New Beginnings, a community centre for adults with learning disabilities, said she was upset by “prejudice” towards people with learning disabilities, who are among those who visit the care farm.

“During lockdown, many of them suffered greatly from mental health issues and they’ve been isolated for long periods of time,” Ms Carter-Stevens said. “They need this activity more than ever. We should be welcoming them with open arms and love.”

Gemma Mugridge from Empowering Futures said some in the community mistakenly thought the care farm was a petting zoo or city farm and would attract “large coachloads of people”.

“This is an absurd idea,” she said. 

The care farm provides a tailored programme of activities for small groups of people, on a referral and appointment basis, she said.

Participants learn social and communication skills, as well as farming and traditional craft techniques, and get therapeutic benefits from working with animals and nature, she added.

“All we want to do is help those in the local community that need us the most – those excluded from other settings due to their needs and disabilities and to give them opportunities that they’ve never had before,” Ms Mugridge said.

Staple Hill councillor Ian Boulton, who knows Empowering Futures from their work in Page Park, said “any community should feel very lucky to have them in their neighbourhood”.

But Winterbourne councillor Trevor Jones told the planning committee: “This development along with others will blight the local landscape. 

“We have concerns about cumulative damage to both the hill fort site as a whole and the rest of the local environment.”

Ms Mugridge asked for the removal of two planning conditions to control planting and protect the tree line that creates a visual barrier between the care farm and the historic hill fort, but a council officer said they were both “standard” and “necessary”.

The charity planted 1,000 saplings at the farm last year and plans to plant another 1,000 this year, the meeting heard.

Historic England raised concerns about the impact of the care farm on the hill fort, which is classified as a “scheduled ancient monument”. 

But council officers felt the benefits of the proposal outweighed the harms to both the heritage asset and the Green Belt and recommended the application for approval, the meeting heard.

Councillors agreed with the recommendation, and voted unanimously to support it, calling the care farm “amazing” and “fantastic”.