A Calderdale family has been refused permission to build a permanent home at their smallholding. Using vertical and aquaponic growing techniques via their company UpPlant Farm, the Robertson family grows and sells food locally, with minimal food miles, said a ward councilor supporting the application for Strines Wood, New Road, Blackshaw Head.
UpPlant also custom designs growing solutions runs workshops and provides educational material to groups, schools, and families about aquaponics and "regenerative" growing.
Planning committee councilors heard aquaponics techniques use fish, whose waste is nutrient-rich and acts as a fertilizer, and they were very susceptible to temperature changes. There was a need for someone to be on-site as a result.
The site was in the council's Area Around Todmorden development policy document and a new development here was not considered appropriate unless that need could be demonstrated, and in their view it had not been demonstrated, they said.
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