Police were called this morning after a farmer and her supporters began a blockade and stand-off with an agricultural contractor sent to create a new gateway in a hedge on the main road out of Bristol.
The stand-off began at around 9am this morning (Monday, April 3) and continued for the rest of the day, with local farmer Catherine Withers and supporters and environmental campaigners parking their cars to stop a hedge-cutting tractor from working on the hedge.
The owner of the land sent the contractors out to cut a 12-metre wide gap in the hedge on the corner of the A38 Bridgwater Road in Bishopsworth, and the privately-owned country lane to Yew Tree Farm, but left at the end of the day with the hedge intact.
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As they were about to start work first thing this morning, Ms Withers stopped them, and summoned supporters who have been campaigning over the past few years to stop the field in question from being developed. Police attended and ascertained it was a civil dispute, leaving the local residents continuing their blockade of the lane.
Ms Withers disputed that the landowner had permission to cut down the hedge in this spot, especially because it’s the spring and nesting season. In February, Bristol Live revealed how scientists undertaking a survey of the land discovered what could be an insect species previously unknown to science, and Bristol Tree Forum said they have now successfully applied for the land and its hedgerows to be designated an SNCI - a Site of Nature Conservation Interest.
So Ms Withers jumped into action when a tractor with hedge-cutting equipment arrived at the farm this morning. “Just after nine this morning I was feeding the pigs and I heard a tractor, and I saw the tractor turn around and park up the lane here. Unbeknownst to me, he was here to put in a gateway and knock out our hedgerow. It’s the beginning of April and a lovely day,” she said.
“Absolutely without any of my knowledge, they were going to put in a 12ft gateway and rip out the hedgerow, apparently it seems now, with Bristol City Council’s approval, that no one seems to know about. Our local councillor knew nothing about it,” she added.
Ms Withers and her family had been renting that field for 55 years as part of Yew Tree Farm - the last working farm within Bristol’s city boundaries - but there has been a long-running battle over it, with the landowner putting the field forward for housing development, and plans from housebuilder Redrow to build around 200 new homes there instead.
The land is privately owned and rented to Yew Tree Farm, and recently Ms Withers said she was told they would not be renewing the lease, and taking back the land. Attempts to build new homes there have been thwarted so far, with the city council’s emerging Local Plan protecting it from future development.
In February, land agents David James Ltd, working on behalf of the land owner, asked Bristol City Council if they needed permission to cut down some of the hedgerow to create a new gateway to the field. The city council confirmed they wouldn’t even need to apply, because there was no Conservation Area nearby, and none of the trees in the hedgerow had Tree Protection Orders.
So the contractors who arrived this morning thought they had full permission to cut through the hedge and create a fresh access to the field in question, which meant access without going up the private lane with Yew Tree Farm. But all day they faced a blockade from Ms Withers and her supporters.
“We’re just standing here now trying to get to the bottom of what’s happened, obviously to protect vital wildlife, and we are disputing the circumstances under which the landlords are trying to obtain this permission, because they have got access to the field,” she said.
'It's breaking my heart'
“The permission they have got says they have got no access to their own field, well that’s not true, they have to pass over our land to get to that access, but they have got unfettered access to it,” she claimed.
“We need to ask questions, so we are stopping this work from happening. I think we might be committing a bit of an obstruction because we physically are blocking the tractor from entering in to rip out the hedgerows. How many bumblebees and butterflies have we seen already? These guys need a home and we can’t keep knocking this stuff out.
“So we are putting in a protest we are parking out and blocking the way, and I hope that many people will see this and agree with us, because we have farmed this farm unfettered since the mid-1960s and it’s just breaking my heart that our landlords can treat me like this, with absolutely no run up to it. I had no idea this was going to happen today and my heart is breaking,” she added.
Rebekah Sparks, from the landlord’s agents David James, based at Wrington, arrived to try to find a solution to the stand-off. “It’s a straightforward situation,” she told Bristol Live. “What the landowner is trying to do is put an agricultural gate into an agricultural field and that’s it.
“We have no other access to the land, so need this gateway. We’re just trying to do our jobs,” she added.
The stand-off continued throughout the day, and ended with clarification being sought with Bristol City Council over the granting of the SNCI status and what that means for protecting the hedgerow there.
Read next:
- Bristol's last farm begins honey production
- Yew Tree Farm in Bristol sees potential reprieve from new homes plan
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