Fruit firm plans fewer migrants

A Herefordshire strawberry company wants to reduce the amount of migrant workers by 60% and use 50% less land in the county for polytunnels.

S & A Group said to do so it would need permanent planning permission for new polytunnels to cover so-called table-top growing.

Director of welfare, Jan Naerebout, said it was being "very proactive".

He said the economic climate was making it less attractive for those in Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia to be in the UK.

Planning application

Mr Naerebout said the value of the euro against the pound "has been so different".

"In very simple terms what we are asking for is a system which we can adopt which is half the amount of polytunnels and half the amount of people," he said.

"But for us to be able to do that, that's quite a large up front investment and therefore we need an element of permanency and therefore we are seeking planning permission for these tunnels."

Mr Naerebout said a planning application has not been put in.

"The whole reason for the public presentation is that we can actually listen to the public, collate all the information and then put a planning process in," he said.