Residents dismayed by Somerset Council’s latest clearance of Packsaddle fields

FROME residents opposed to the development on fields north of Packsaddle Way have expressed their ‘bewilderment and anguish’ at Somerset Council after recent clearance work at the site has seen 20 cows introduced to graze on the fields.

A controversial planning application was submitted to Somerset Council by the developer Live West who want to build 74 houses on the land which has routinely been opposed to by local residents’ group, People for Packsaddle.

Local residents say that before the cows were introduced to the fields, a digger was at the site digging up the area to make way for a new water trough which they say has resulted in at least one birds’ nest being destroyed in the process.

Beki Arthurs who witnessed this said, “I was watching a robin with a full beak of grubs disappear into the ivy and bramble hedge near where the digger was working. During the time it went off gathering again, the digger swept away the thicket. The robin returned and hopped from branch to branch. Only then did it dawn on me, it’s nest and fledglings had been flattened.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I expect more than one nest was sabotaged.” This incident has been reported to the police as a suspected wildlife crime and they are investigating.

The fields were also previously cleared in July and August of last year, before a planning application was submitted, in the middle of the bird nesting season. In March of this year People for Packsaddle submitted a freedom of information request to Somerset Council in an attempt to uncover the true motives and chain-of-events behind the 2022 clearances. The group says, “Somerset Council have so far failed to adequately respond to this request, despite it being nearly 75 working days overdue. The matter is presently with the Information Commissioner’s Office for resolution.”

People for Packsaddle have also asked Somerset Council to clarify why cows have been introduced to the fields so soon after they were designated as an Asset of Community Value and when the fields are full of wildlife.

Toby Culff from People for Packsaddle said, “Somerset Council has told us the main reasons for introducing cows to the fields is to ‘prevent colonisation by reptiles and other fauna during the preconstruction phase’. This disregards the facts that the fields are already teaming with wildlife, despite the best efforts of the council last year, and that the planning application is yet to be determined. We are not in a pre-construction phase, yet the council is behaving as if we are. Their actions feel entirely presumptuous and partisan. We believe the council degraded the ecological baseline as a result of its first clearance and intend to further degrade it with the introduction of cows.

“Apparently, two of the council’s key priorities are to build ‘a greener, more sustainable Somerset’ and ‘a healthy and caring Somerset’. Instead, the residents of our ordinary patch of north Frome have seen the council wage a cynical, calculated, concerted campaign against them, designed to curtail their access to these cherished fields and to denude this verdant habitat of its rich, vital biodiversity. At every turn, Somerset Council has failed to properly consult with residents or its own councillors, it has withheld and misrepresented the truth, and it has determinedly pursued its profit-first agenda above all else. Climate, conservation and community haven’t warranted a second thought, it appears. This is not how a council should behave.

“We’ve been told that Asset of Community Value status isn’t relevant and that there are no safety concerns associated to the introduction of cows to a space which is used on a daily basis by the community. However, the council well knows that the Asset of Community Value status – a council designation – recognises the fields as being of special importance to local residents. The status was awarded on the basis that the fields ‘further the social well-being of the local community’ and that their principal use is as ‘an accessible space for countryside recreation’.

“The health and safety executive has issued guidance to landowners advising against putting cattle into fields with footpaths if this can be avoided, but it appears that Somerset Council’s first priority is to ensure that planning permission is granted. They are, in effect, acting on behalf of the developer, LiveWest, and are prejudicing what should be an objective, impartial council process.”

Describing the impact on, and reaction of, the local community, Toby concluded, “The cows have been here less than 48 hours, but the impact is already clear. Many residents – elderly people, families, people who have walked the fields for decades – have been in touch to say they’ll simply avoid the area now. It feels like this is exactly what the council wanted, and I believe residents are entitled to feel besieged and betrayed. They know exactly what is going on here: the council is putting profit before people, and they’ll simply trample on anything and anyone that gets in their way.”

A spokesperson for Somerset Council said, “Brush and weed clearance was undertaken on this site so that a watering trough could be reinstated and a leaking water pipe replaced

“The work involved a strip of roughly 40 square metres on the eight-acre site and was undertaken so the land can be used for cattle grazing. No trees or hedgerows were cut

“The work was undertaken by an experienced contractor who has reassured us that they carried out the appropriate visual inspection beforehand to check for the presence of nesting birds.

“A planning application is under consideration and will go through the planning process, during which anyone with concerns will have the opportunity to make their points.”