Corruption at the SDNP, resignations, and stars aligning

As you might know we have been seeking the support of South Downs National Park and Lewes District Council for our ecological community farm. We made planning applications in order to:

• extend our licence to live in our mobile home as agricultural workers

• convert an area of one of our barns into a farm house

Freedom of information

When these applications were refused we used our rights under the freedom of information act to see the emails behind the scenes of our applications. What we discovered was pretty revealing to say the least.

Here is a taste of what South Downs National Park were saying about us:

“These individuals who used this appeal and have now lost are part of a terrible divisive culture... at least this (crazy scheme) is now likely to die as I suspected from the outset.”

“Who knows what the new owners are up to - a case of newbys arriving from hove via London and not much clue getting some land that no farmer would touch for the price the last owners were asking..”

The emails also revealed that an SDNP officer had sent our confidential application and an internal report to a member of the public who was organising objections to our plans. The officer ensured that our application was released to a small but vocal group of objectors in our village before they were permitted to be released to the wider public. The officer and the recipient agreed that this was necessary in order to offer more time to organise objections.

The correspondence referred to 'quietly alerting' Kingston's new district councillor ahead of time too. It reveals that the councillor then helped to set up a special public parish meeting solely to discuss our application – which we were neither made aware of or invited to.

The emails also revealed meetings and much correspondence about our applications between our neighbour William Meyer and the SDNP officers at all levels who were responsible for making decisions on our applications. As well as being our neighbour, William Meyer was a SDNP member, a planning committee member, and co-director of a commercial Ltd company alongside SDNP CEO Tim Slaney.

Investigations

The behind the scenes emails suggested that corruption and malpractice were happening at different levels of the organisation. We learnt that if we wanted to complain, SDNP members and SDNP officers require separate investigations according to the authority's rules.

We requested an investigation into implicated SDNP members, but following our request William Meyer resigned. Although the authority admitted that corruption and malpractice were suspected, they said that there was now no requirement for them to investigate.

We asked for a high level investigation to be made into implicated SDNP officers. This was granted and carried out by Paul Beard. However it was reported that not all key officers were available to take part in the investigation, and that a comprehensive investigation into officers was difficult in the absence of the parallel investigation into members.

Nevertheless the investigation made its conclusions:

• Regarding the sharing of our confidential application information the investigation reported that the member of the public organising objections in the village 'had not been sent anything which would not subsequently have been made public'.

• Regarding our neighbour having meetings to influence decision makers regarding our applications, it was concluded that although his house is just a few meters from our farm, William Meyer had no pecuniary or unfair interest in those applications, and that officers were right to meet with him.

• Regarding the 'colourful language' that was used about us behind the scenes (examples above), the investigation concluded that there was no need for fellow officers or members to either challenge or report it at the time.

• Paul Beard concluded that officers had done no wrong.

There was one aspect of our complaint that Paul Beard neglected to investigate. This concerned comments and information sharing by the then CEO Trevor Beattie. A few days after the investigation report was released Trevor Beattie announced that he too would be leaving – and he retired a few weeks later.

Reassurance

Having done all that we could to try to hold our public servants to account, unfortunately we were still at a point where we had to deal with the SDNP and Lewes District Council authorities further. Our business plan required us to exercise our permitted development rights to offer five guest rooms at the farm. These rights were established by the Govt to encourage farms like us to diversify. We were however understandably very concerned that the authorities would continue to find ways to refuse our applications.

We decided to write to Tim Slaney the new SDNP CEO (formerly the SDNP Planning Director responsible for our application decisions). We wanted reassurance from him that we would be able to exercise our permitted development rights without interference. He reassured us that, as with all planning applications at SDNP and Lewes District Council, decisions are made fairly and professionally, and 'It would be unfair to act in any other way and I will not let that happen.'

Permitted development

Our subsequent permitted development 'Prior approval' application for guest rooms was refused by Tim Slaney's team at Lewes District Council. After our call for transparency about this decision, planning officer Chris Wright admitted that although he had refused the application on highway grounds, there were in reality no such concerns from the Highway Authority.

He also admitted that he was unprofessional in his desire to take into account the feelings of a small group of unhappy local residents for a simple permitted development application – one that does not legally permit any resident views.

Following this we decided to try exercising the simplest of all permitted development rights. The team at Lewes District Council were required to administrate a 'Prior Notification' for change of use of a particular barn to guest rooms. This could not possibly be refused unless the notification related to an area over 150sqm (it was well below 150sqm).

Our notification was at first misregistered and then mysteriously disappeared. After applying again officers made an unprecedented decision to deny our permitted development rights again - making a highly unusual and complex legal interpretation of a single word in the legislation. In the words of a retired senior planning consultant this decision appeared to be 'going to incredible lengths to try to refuse your prior notification on such an obscure basis'.

Following pressure from us Chris Wright and the team at Lewes District Council admitted that they had indeed misregistered the notification, had failed to seek any legal advice, and that in fact the right decision was to accept the notification - which they then did.

Where are we now?

For a time it seemed that our whole project was under threat and we would have to sell up. If we in the UK are to make the shift to agriculture that works for people and planet, it is crucial that smaller scale regenerative farming is supported. This means encouraging farm workers to live on site, and allowing farms to diversify. As can be seen from our story, the harsh reality is that decision makers like Lewes District Council and South Downs National Park will do whatever it takes to make sure that this doesn't happen.

However! a few months ago the stars aligned for us. A converted barn adjoining Lovebrook, once part of the farm and sold off years ago, came up for sale. To cut a long story very short, we managed to find a way to buy this converted barn and our family are now very happily settled in! We are feeling very grateful and relieved.

Unlike most start-up regenerative farmers like aweside farm and allwood farm though, we are the lucky ones. Now that we live on site the farm is continuing to thrive – hundreds of visitors coming through our gates every month as part of our community wellbeing programme, social prescribing partnerships established, lots of Kingston villagers volunteering, 1000 trees planted, increased biodiversity and soil health, veg box scheme established, art trail created with local artists, more workers employed, multi-generational nature club up and running, and now we run year long trainee regenerative farmer courses.

So will LDC and SDNP ever be held to account?

Sadly all our successes have been hard won despite these two authorities' best efforts rather than because of their support. Although the problems here seem to be systemic, it's also true that everybody makes mistakes, and everybody has lapses in judgement - including our public servants.

Now that we are able to spend all our energies to focus on our work here at Lovebrook rather than wasting time trying to hold these two authorities to account, we are left wondering this: for the sake of continued confidence in the planning system, will either of these authorities have the integrity to admit what happened here and say sorry?

If you are curious about this, please feel free to email tim.slaney@southdowns.gov.uk and Zoe.Nicholson@lewes.gov.uk to find out.

Do you have confidence in the planning system?

If you are worried that you (or countless other local planning applicants) have unknowingly been discussed and treated in the same way as us behind the scenes, you could email your local MPs if they have a constituency in or around South Downs National Park:

Arundel and South Downs

andrew.griffith.mp@parliament.uk

East Hampshire

damian.hinds.mp@parliament.uk

Lewes

james.maccleary.mp@parliament.uk

Winchester

danny.chambers.mp@parliament.uk

Chichester

jess.brownfuller.mp@parliament.uk

Wealdon

nusrat.ghani.mp@parliament.uk

Havant

alan.mak.mp@parliament.uk

Brighton Pavilion

sian.berry.mp@parliament.uk

Thank you for reading,

Rich, Hannah, Max and Bella

x

Save Lovebrook!

The South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) have made a decision that threatens to close down our thriving ecological community farm.

While the Government is looking to encourage more home building, and the Labour party has said it will build more affordable homes, one local planning authority is going in the other direction. The South Downs National Park (SDNPA) is forcing our family to demolish our home - making a thriving ecological community farm unviable in the process. This decision is supported by Lewes District Council who are now threatening us with prosecution.

We can't let this amazing farm project disappear.

1) Please tell the SDNPA and Lewes District Council that it is not in the public interest to remove our home and prosecute our family.

2) Demand that these authorities start to use their planning powers to encourage ecological community farms rather than close them down.

Thank you. 

Rich, Hannah, Max and Bella x

You can email CEO of SDNPA: trevor.beattie@southdowns.gov.uk
and the leader of Lewes District Council: Zoe.Nicholson@lewes.gov.uk.

Background

A farm for planet and people

• Lovebrook Farm is an innovative example of the kind of farm diversification that can respond to social crises and the nature emergency.

• We provide food for the local community through a farm shop (the village's only shop), local markets, veg box scheme, and we supply local food banks.

• We run a year long course to train the next generation of agroecological farmers

• Over a hundred people a week benefit from the various community projects we run on the farm.

• We have a packed program of community wellbeing sessions for participants such as patients referred by local GPs, people experiencing food insecurity, people with refugee backgrounds, people previously imprisoned, local schools, and others - with many positive mental health outcomes for local people.

• We have an amazing community of volunteers helping to transform the land and support the project, including over forty from Kingston village itself!

• Our work has attracted funders and many collaborators including local GP surgeries, the Probation Service, The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, many local and regional charities, food partnerships, and Brighton University Hospital who are collaborating on a research project.

• We are bringing orchards back to the village after an absence of nearly a hundred years

• We're establishing the return of native species and a huge increase in biodiversity across thirty three acres of the Downs - through wildlife ponds, rare chalk grassland, tree planting and rewilding.

• We are sequestering thousands of tons of carbon over the next ten years through regenerative farming.

• We open up the land to the public every Saturday for visits to Sussex's only standing stone.

• We run a campsite, and have plans for a carbon-neutral 'no-car guesthouse' for walkers and cyclists - a first for the South Downs. This application is currently with SDNPA.

Our thriving farm is now at risk of closing since the SDNPA turned down a planning application to extend the three year permission granted for our temporary housing structure. With the right to live in our home taken away from us, our family would be faced with the unexpected and substantial extra cost of renting a house elsewhere. An extra cost we can't afford.

The most affordable home in the village

We've been living on our farm for two years now – a lifetime for our young kids, and it's hard not to point out the obvious irony: that in the midst of a housing crisis, a cost of living crisis, soaring rents and a lack of affordable housing - issues prioritised by both the SDNPA and Lewes District Council, these two authorities want to force a young family to demolish their own home, and remove the most affordable home in a village where the average house price is £782k.

We established the project in 2021 when we sold up our house in Hove and used the proceeds to set up this Community Interest Company. All profits go back into our ecological and community work.

The farm had been on the market for five years before we bought it - nobody wanted it, and now it's thriving. The income from our markets and veg bag scheme already allow us to employ four part time growers and we expect to earn a minimum wage ourselves by the end of the year. But we need a home to live in to keep it going.

Is there a need for us to continue to live on our farm?

It is one of the SDNPA's priorities to keep farms 'farmhouse free' wherever they can - whatever the consequences. They have now decided that we don't have an ‘essential need’ to be on our farm. This is despite the fact that we really do need to continue to be here so that the farm can function. As you can imagine this is for lots of reasons, large and small: being on call for all sorts of tasks and emergencies, winds, frosts, animal welfare, security, the late night tasks, the weekends and early mornings and of course a duty of care for our overnight guests.

We have had to battle with the SDNPA from the beginning. In response to a pre-planning application which set out all our plans, we were advised that converting a brick barn into a permanent farm house for our family would not be permissible. (Confusingly this is despite the fact that the SDNPA would allow us to convert our barns into a hotel complex via permitted development!).

Keeping the pastoral look of the Downs - at any cost

Regenerative community farms are not welcome in the South Downs. Lovebrook has met strong resistance to any changes away from intensive livestock farming (the farm's previous use). In our meetings with the SDNPA the Development management lead officer and Landscape officer told us that they want to see pasture and grazing animals on our land, rather than rewilding and horticulture.

The officers said they didn't want to support our agroecology plans because they would be "visually unappealing”. Indeed in their planning advice document they state that “(It is) felt that the uses proposed and introduction of features atypical of a pastoral landscape are likely to generate both negative changes to landscape character and potentially negative visual impacts”.

In the midst of a climate and nature emergency we found this pretty shocking.

And there isn't even any historical basis for the SDNPA's policies on keeping this pastoral look. Sadly the SDNPA landscape officer seemed to be completely unaware of the historic land use in our village - that evidence shows that for most of the last thousand years, every single acre of Lovebrook farmland was used to supply the village with organic cereals, fruit and vegetables. It is this historic land use that inspired us to set up our community veg box scheme in the first place - a return to local fruit and veg for Kingston people as an alternative to unsustainable global food systems and the damaging intensive meat production preferred by the SDNPA.

What's more, for some unspecified reason the advice of our highly respected farming consultant Ian Tolhurst MBE was completely ignored by the planning officers in this application process. According to Ian the reason why nobody wanted to buy the farm for five years until we came along is clear: “(this) pastoral livestock unit falls far below any possibility of financial viability due to its small land area”.

Behind the times

In two short years we have managed to have a substantial ecological and social impact already. This is despite the SDNPA and Lewes District Council putting themselves in our way. The decisions by these authorities go against a growing movement across the UK towards policy and planning decisions that support agroecological farming and multifunctional land use like that in action at Lovebrook Farm. With finite land resources, we need land to do more than one thing at one time. We think that our project shows how this principle works.

Ecologically minded authorities in other parts of the UK have begun to support projects like Lovebrook that need housing to operate. The One Planet legislation in Wales encourages people to sustainably build a home on their land with a net-zero impact. Cornwall Council has followed suit. As the climate and nature emergencies deepen, planning decisions that threaten agroecological farms, like those imposed on Lovebrook Farm, seem further out of step with the reality facing farmers (and all of us) today.

Who will support a farm like ours?

Although we are receiving amazing support from our collaborators, supporters and fellow village residents many of whom volunteer with us, support is absent from those in power.

When we were deciding to buy the farm the SDNPA had just recognised a climate emergency and had released their climate change strategy report. This states that it is 'essential for the SDNPA to use its planning powers and policies to best effect' - for projects like ours. Encouraged by this we decided to go ahead with the farm purchase and were looking forward to working with the authority. However after buying the land and meeting with the SDNPA to explain our plans, we found that this statement was just empty words and our plans were not welcome at all. In fact when the lead planning officer told us that we 'should have known this is the wrong site when you bought the farm' - we almost felt like giving up.

And this is despite the national park's proudly publicised ten priorities for managing the park - diverse social and ecological priorities that left us feeling pretty confused when we read them. This is because it looks like we genuinely tick the box for every one of these priorities - yet the SDNPA are happy to watch Lovebrook Farm close down.

Unfortunately support has not been forthcoming from elsewhere either: our local MP Maria Caulfield said that she can't intervene to help, and the same was said to us by a cabinet member of Lewes District Council. Although the council have become more responsive as a result of this petition, they still hang the threat of prosecution over our family in support of the SDNPA planning decision. We just can't understand it.

We think projects like Lovebrook provide solutions at grassroots level to many of the crises that our societies are currently facing.  We have to save and support projects like these.

Please sign this petition and let these authorities know that removing our home and prosecuting our family is not in the public interest.

Rich, Hannah, Max and Bella x