West Sussex growers fear big squeeze on resources

The companies who supply much of the English produce to major supermarkets and DIY chains with fruit and plants want to find out how they can take on the challenges of an increasingly competitive future.

The issues which could threaten the members of the West Sussex Growers' Association include water shortages, obtaining planning permission for new glasshouses and the price of fuel.

The association has asked councils to help them meet the 16,900 cost of the study. It is hoped work on the study will start this September and be finished by the end of January 2009.

A similar study for Lea Valley growers near London has proved a success.

Arun District Council's cabinet is due on Monday, August 4, to agreed to contribute 2,000.

The horticulture industry is probably the biggest rural employer in the district. There are several major sites in Barnham and Walberton such as Walberton Nurseries with lavender and Star Plants with shrubs and climbers.

The Chichester area also has sites such as Tangmere Airfield Nurseries, renowned for peppers, as well as several others which line the B2166 through Runcton.

Throughout West Sussex, the industry is estimated to contribute 300m to the county economy.

It also spends some 30m on the equivalent of 2,500 staff. The concentration of glasshouses means the county comprises 10pc of the UK's total amount of horticulture.

But WSGA vice chairman Patrick Bastow said it was important to recognise that the county's likely status as the biggest horticulture area in the UK was under threat. "We face many challenges as an industry," he stated.

"One of the biggest ones is getting planning permission for new glasshouses or to extend existing ones.

"In Lincolnshire, where there is also a big horticultural industry, people welcome new glasshouses because of the jobs they bring. But that's not the case in West Sussex.

"It's a difficult situation because we are a rural economy. You can't build a glasshouse anywhere but the countryside."

At Lagness, surrounding residents are battling a bid by Brinkmans Nurseries to build a giant glasshouse complex at Park Farm.

He hoped the study's outcome would lead councils, such as Arun, to take account of industry's needs when they compiled their planning policies. This could stop smaller sites being sold for housing to restrict newcomers' attempts to enter the business.

Wider issues of concern, said Mr Bastow, were the state of roads around West Sussex and the increasing competition for water.

The dire condition of the highway network hampered growers in their bids to get their produce to their national cusomers against the superior links of the major Planet Earth complex which was being opened in Kent.

It was also becoming increasingly difficult for business owners to gain licences to abstract water, with more and more residents seeking supplies, to cater for expanding crops.

But Mr Bastow said he was sure horticulture would continue around Bognor and Chichester.

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