Villagers lose salad firm battle

The firm washes hundreds of tonnes of lettuce for supermarkets

Residents of several quiet rural villages have failed in their attempt to prevent a salad company expanding.

The Vitacress plant in Hampshire's Bourne Valley already washes hundreds of tonnes of salads for supermarkets and grows fields of watercress.

Basingstoke District Councillors met on Wednesday night and voted to allow the company to expand its operation even more.

Local people had said the site was already too large, and further expansion would have a negative effect on life in the valley.

The company argued they were a major rural business, and if allowed to grow larger this would be good for the area's economy.

Opponents from villages disputed this, however, saying Vitacress is already an industrial operation, with most employees bussed in from outside the valley.