Worcestershire | Archive | 2001 | November | 1
From the archive, first published Thursday 1st Nov 2001.
RESIDENTS of a small Vale hamlet are issuing a health warning now plans for a vegetable packing station have been passed on appeal.
They were angry when a Government inspector upheld Simms and Woods's appeal to expand on land at the back of their houses at Upper Moor, near Pershore.
The development includes huge packing stations, two hectare-wide lakes and a balancing pond.
Wychavon's planning committee threw out the original plans because, it said, they were contrary to Government guidelines about development in the open countryside.
The Government inspector, in allowing the appeal however, ruled that Hill and Moor landfill site and a new bypass behind the houses would detract from the rural character of the area anyway.
Now the residents, who already put up with the towering landfill site and the burial ground of 130,000 animals culled during the foot and mouth epidemic on their horizon, are faced with the prospect of a huge commercial market garden business and all its implications.
They have formed themselves into the action group CHUMS (Community Health Upper Moor Safety) and have vowed to do all they can to scupper the company's plans.
Chris Roberts said: "We may have lost a battle but not the war. Apart from the flooding concerns we have, we are also astounded that a company will be washing its produce with water that comes from bore holes downstream of the landfill sites.
"We consider this will be a health risk to a much wider community."
Mother of two, Alison Williamson, said: "I don't want huge lakes at the back of my house and am very concerned about flooding. Many of our gardens were flooded last year and many of our houses were totally under water in Easter 1998.
"With acres more hard standing, I can see more contaminated water pouring into our houses."
The Journal put villagers' concerns to Mr Ben Winkett, chairman of Simms and Woods but he declined to comment.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008