Here We Go Again...

No stone unturned: Vineyard Farms' enhancement of Barrow Hill...

Pretty much as expected, Vineyard Farms have finally lodged their formal appeal against Medway Council’s planning committee’s decision to reject their grandiose plans for a vainglorious £30m tourist centre, to be built on one of Medway’s last bits of green belt land and the “area of outstanding natural beauty” that is Bush Valley in Cuxton. They are seeking a 10-day full public inquiry, which will be held within the next three months.  (Update: now scheduled for March 19th 2023)

Naturally, they left their appeal as late as possible, presumably in the hope that everyone had forgotten about it all. We haven’t. 

Since the planning meeting that knocked back the ambitions of billionaire tax-exile Mark Dixon (owner of Vineyard Farms), Vineyard Farms have been busy dumping ugly heaps of spoil along field boundaries across the lower end of Bush Valley and on top of Barrow Hill, where their billionaire’s version of Tracy Island is to be built. 

Numerous warning signs have also sprouted up everywhere, proudly proclaiming their ownership of the land and brusquely reminding people to stick to the very few public footpaths that cross the 1200 or so acres that form their new and bizarrely-named “Silverhand Estate”.

(They seem to have given up on the "Kentish Wine Vault" name since the protestors rather cheekily managed to claim the .com address as their own...)

"The Future Is Sparkling": for Vineyard Farms, maybe, but for the rest of us...?

They have even employed one or two burly, surly “wardens” to roar around their fiefdom in 4x4s in order to accost anyone walking on the farm tracks and demand that they “get orf our larnd”. As a result, much of the beautiful woodland and farmland around Upper Bush and Luddesdown are now sadly off-limits, at least to anyone who wants to avoid a confrontation with a zealous VF employee. 

It all comes across as rather prickly and hostile, and hardly endears them to the local community of Cuxton. 

Local residents have made it clear that they don’t want a football stadium-sized tourist venue in Bush valley, with the inevitable adverse impact upon the quality of life for the people who live in the area. I know that most Cuxton folk want the vineyard to succeed, and would willingly help Vineyard Farms with that, if only they would talk to people and back off a bit. The vineyard bosses could be a welcome part of the local community - if they so chose. 

But they don't care. And neither, it seems, do Medway Council.

As I noted in a previous update, in their formal rejection of the Vineyard Farms plans, Medway Council once more rolled the dice in VF’s favour. Their stated reasons given for rejection were:

“The scale and nature of the proposed development would result in a significant increase in additional activity within the Bush Valley, which would constitute a severe adverse impact and a direct loss of the currently undeveloped tranquillity and wildness of the AONB. It would also lead to the erosion of the rural character and uniqueness of the community of the Upper Bush Conservation Area and the wider Parish of Cuxton, contrary to Policies BNE12, BNE14, and BNE32 of the Medway Local Plan 2003 and paragraphs 177, 197 and 201 of the National Planning Policy Framework 2021…”

No mention whatsoever of the protection of Green Belt land. No mention of the impact of traffic upon Cuxton and Bush Road. Both were heavily debated at the planning meeting, and yet neither argument made it as a formal reason for refusal of planning permission. I went to check the video of the planning meeting, but it seems that Medway Council have since removed public access to it…

By omitting any reference to the most powerful case against VF plans, they have strengthened VF’s hand and severely weakened that of the objectors.

National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) guidelines with respect to the green belt are quite clear: 

148. When considering any planning application, local planning authorities should ensure that substantial weight is given to any harm to the Green Belt. ‘Very special circumstances’ will not exist unless the potential harm to the Green Belt by reason of inappropriateness, and any other harm resulting from the proposal, is clearly outweighed by other considerations.

“149: A local planning authority should regard the construction of new buildings as inappropriate in the Green Belt…” 

"Just a £30m farm building, honest guv'nor, like wot you'd get on any other farm..."

The case for rejection of VF's scheme when assessed against the Green Belt protections offered by NPPF guidelines is incontrovertible. This development offers nothing by way of "very special circumstances". By omitting any reference to the NPPF green belt clauses, Medway Council have  ensured that the debate will only be framed around the much weaker AONB and archaeological heritage and conservation area aspects. 

Thanks to the wording of the Council's formal rejection notice, the debate will not encompass the most compelling reasons for upholding the decision of the planning committee to reject the VF proposals.

Mark Dixon, owner of Vineyard Farms Ltd...

Both Vineyard Farms and Medway Council will undoubtedly be engaging highly-paid briefs to argue their respective cases at the public inquiry. That's something the "grass roots" opponents of the plans simply cannot afford to do, especially given the 10-day duration of the inquiry. Both Vineyard Farms and Medway Council can afford the undoubtedly huge legal costs that the inquiry will generate. 

But to local opponents of the VF plans, who lack the infinite financial resources available to its proponents, the threat of having costs awarded against them will discourage any attempt by them to get the green belt protection and traffic issues debated at the public inquiry. 

Like we thought all along, money talks. 

In fact, it shouts.

So loudly, that no other voices can be heard.

Given the £30m price tag of the proposed development, the planning inspectorate will almost certainly refer the final decision to the Secretary of State for such things. Up until a few months ago, that office was held by the relatively sane and sensible Michael Gove. He was certainly no fan of Lord Foster’s glass and concrete creations and would have most likely given an objective review of his planning inspector’s recommendations. 

New Secretary of State for Planning, Simon Clarke, with obligatory Union Jacks...

Alas, we are now in the days of a Liz Truss-led Tory administration, where “sane and sensible” pretty much bars you from public office. The office of Secretary of State for planning is now held by Truss cheerleader, Simon Clarke. Mr Clarke was a strong proponent of the Brexit pressure group “Leave Means Leave” and regards green belt AONB land as ripe for development. He has stated that he wants to increase house-building and “take on the curse of Nimbyism”. Indeed, his department has just announced plans to effectively remove environmental protections from areas such as national parks and AONBs in order to establish "development zones". Developers are certainly licking their chops in anticipation of what they expect Mr. Clarke to deliver for them. 

Sounds like just the man Vineyard Farms need to get them what their non-dom owner wants. Those NIMBY Cuxton villagers shouldn’t be allowed to stand in the way of progress, after all... 

I fear the worst. But then, I think the worst has pretty much happened already...

A White Christmas...?

It is difficult to really imagine the size of the Vineyard Farms planned new restaurant and visitor’s centre for Green Belt land in Upper Bush. The glossy brochures that have so impressed our local Council planning department and that show the hordes of smiling, happy, hippy visitors lounging around, with Mark Dixon’s Tracey Island in the background, don’t really give an indication of scale.

But this thing is big.

Really big.

To give you an indication of just how big Lord Foster’s Flying saucer is, I’ve taken the architect’s drawing of the above ground restaurant, visitor’s centre and ornamental lake (and remember, Vineyard Farms are calling all of this an “agricultural building” to get it exempted from the prohibition of new builds in Green Belt land) and superimposed, to scale, a full-sized football pitch next to it.

The Vineyard Farms complex, compared to the size of a standard football pitch...

You can see that what is above ground is much larger than a standard football pitch. (Just an agricultural building, remember?  Honest guv'nor.  Just a £30m agricultural building, just like wot you get on any farm, right?).

What you don’t see is the majority of the building that is underground. Under the lake is an 85m x 60m chamber for their actual wine making area, excavated into the hillside to a depth of 12 metres. From the eastern side of the restaurant block, the building radiates out underground for another 30 metres, to a depth of around 6-7 metres for the fermentation tanks and barrel room.

Barrow Hill is going to be essentially hollowed out to create Vineyard’s Farms’ underground lair.

And all that adds up to a simply enormous volume of chalk that needs to dug out for this grandiose scheme.

Simple arithmetic (and a bulking factor of 1.4 for chalk) shows that volume to be in the region of 160,000 cubic meters! 

This is a very conservative estimate, and does not include any of the likely required foundation works, or anything else they might be digging up as part of the project. It’s just the estimated volume of the chalk spoil that will have to be dug out for the underground caverns, based on the dimensions given in the architectural drawings.

In Section 5.1.5 of their Construction and Environmental Management Plan (CEMP) they admit that "the total material that will be moved is estimated to be more than 100,000 tonnes" but they somehow contend (in Section 3 of the CEMP) that:

"Finished site levels have been determined to negate the need to remove any spoil from site. During construction, should any excavation spoil be unearthed that cannot be re-used this will be removed from site and disposed of at a suitable licensed waste transfer facility..."

Unless they are planning to just pile up the chalk in ugly, white swathes everywhere in Bush Valley (which would actually fit in with the devastated, torn-up valley they have already ploughed up for their vines), this claim doesn’t seem to stand up.

The excavated chalk would cover a standard football field to a depth of 32 metres (100 feet).

Spread to a depth of 1 metre, it would cover 40 acres, or 12% of the whole of Bush Valley.

The top soil cover is pretty thin, and even if they kept all of the top soil from the above ground restaurant area and the car park, they will only have about 10,000 cubic meters to play with. That will only cover about 50,000 square metres of spread-out chalk spoil to a soil depth of around 8 inches  - about a third of the chalk dug out, even if it was spread as thickly as one metre around the valley.

It is clear that they will have to lift the top soil off of a huge area of Bush Valley just to bury their spoil.  The mess, the disturbance, noise, air-borne dust and sheer ugliness this will cause for a few years is entirely predictable. Poor old Cuxton, and particularly Upper Bush, have been through it all before. It will be on a similar scale to the way Dean Farm valley was despoiled forty years ago...

Dean Valley, top soil removal in the early 1980's - soon to be repeated in Bush Valley?

As above...

It's just not practical to import more top soil or export a lot of chalk off site. They’ll need another 20,000 cubic metres of top soil (or around 700 lorry loads!) imported to site to cover their chalk spoil even if they do spread it pretty thickly. That’s a lot of extra traffic that’s not included in any traffic plan. You can multiply that by five if they have to take the excess chalk off site.

Vineyard Farms have so far managed to bamboozle Medway Council planning department, but fortunately some of the other councillors on the Planning committee are becoming wary of the smoke and mirrors approach of Vineyards Farms in trying to hide the more inconvenient, vague or impractical aspects of their grandiose aspirations.

Vineyard Farms need to be pushed on a lot more detail on how they plan to manage their excavation (as well as a lot of other things). But will anyone get an opportunity to do so?

If they get their way, Bush Valley could be afflicted with a White Christmas – for ever!  

Reasons To Be Objectionable, Part 2...

Chicane on Bush Road, bottom of Wood Street...

In my last post I explained how the Vineyard Farm planning application to build a country club-style winery in Bush Valley is effectively based on smoke and mirrors.

My objection on that point is really one of principle: plonking new buildings in green belt land is simply not permitted under existing planning regulations.

It looks like most people in the area don’t really care about that, however. Most local people don’t take walks in our wonderful countryside in Bush Valley, it seems. Vineyard Farm’s plans for Upper Bush don’t directly affect them, so they’re not bothered. Oh, it might even be a nice place to go for a meal, they’re thinking. It will even create jobs (how many local, I wonder? Enough to offset the local job losses that occurred when Vineyard Farms bought out Court and Brookers Farm and then Bush Farm?).  

But this post is going to concentrate on how the winery development will directly and adversely affect all residents of Cuxton.

Everyone who lives in the village knows how congested Bush Road can get, especially at school run time. It is effectively a single track road, with three chicanes and lots of on-road parking that makes HGV and delivery driver’s lives pretty difficult – especially at school run time when Cuxton Primary empties out.

Parking on the main road by the Co-Op.  Note the bus stop parking - so much for public transport...

The proposals put in by Vineyard Farms (see the Framework Travel Plan on the council’s planning web page) freely admit that around 70,000 visitors a year will be going to the winery. The site will also employ around 150 winery and estate workers.

We all know how poor public transport to and from Cuxton is. We all know most of these visitors and staff will be driving to the winery.

The Outline Deliveries and Servicing Management Plan tells us that around 850 HGVs a year will be going to and from the site. There will also be waste collections and deliveries of goods via non-HGV vehicles.

It all adds up. It’s all additional traffic trying to negotiate the three chicanes (where the road has been narrowed at the bottom of Wood Street, by the social club, and just up from the bottom of Charles Drive) and the resident’s cars parked by the shops and further along the road.  And that's without the cars parked up during school run time.

Bush Road is already heavily congested. Anyone who walks along it, pretty much any time, can see that.

Parking outside school, non-peak...

And yet the Transport Assessment concludes in Section 2.23 that “that traffic flows on Bush Road are low”…

This defies all common sense and even the most casual of observations. How on earth does it come to that conclusion? 

Simple…

Section 2.21.states that vehicle count data was gathered from an area adjacent to the Dean Farm access road. This is a completely inappropriate place to conduct a traffic survey if the true extent of congestion in Bush Road is to be assessed. Congestion in Bush Road occurs primarily between the school and the A228 junction and this is where interactions of new facility traffic with existing traffic are likely to occur.  The data in the survey is skewed because it effectively excludes much of the existing traffic.

Section 2.22:  Peak times for traffic are given as 8-9 a.m and 5-6 p.m. This is also wrong, as the traffic congestion in Bush Road is primarily driven by the “school run” times, which are 8.15-9.15 a.m. and 2.30 – 5.00 p.m.

The conclusion in 2.23 that “that traffic flows on Bush Road are low” is therefore based on completely unrepresentative data.   

2.24. Given the above poor choice of the traffic survey data collection point, HGV movements have also been severely underestimated as many HGVs are deliveries to Cuxton village that will run up James Road, or to the Co-Op, well before the data collection point.

Given that the traffic survey data is derived from the wrong place and the wrong times, any conclusions drawn are effectively meaningless. This survey has to be repeated in a proper manner before any compliance with consent conditions can be assessed.

Social club chicane...

There is another omission in Meyer Brown’s Transport Assessment.

Section 4 of the Transport Document attempts to justify the development in terms of manufacturing process logistics. It claims that the grape processing, fermentation and bottling process has to be conducted local to the vineyard for quality considerations, and that therefore the wine factory has to be built at Upper Bush.

It ignores the obvious logistical solution. Crushing the grapes on site (to reduce possible bruising and oxidation damage to the fruit if otherwise transported) could take place in very modest facilities, possibly even existing ones at Court and Brookers Farm in Luddesdown. Based on 900 acres with a 3 ton per acre yield, it would subsequently need only approximately 90 tanker movements to transport an entire annual juice harvest to a local business park that had a fermentation and bottling plant built there, with access that allows easy delivery of bottles and process consumables, and distribution of finished product.

As stated earlier, the Meyer Brown documents suggest 850 HGV movements a year in the proposed facility. The alternative, completely unaddressed by any of the submission documents, reduces this enormously.

It must be emphasised that were this activity to be primarily focussed upon the production of bottled wine, the fermentation and bottling operations would take place at a facility with better transport access than that offered by Upper Bush – and one that would not cost £30m.

This option has not been discussed at all in the proposal.

Charles Road chicane...

And so it goes on…

In terms of access to the proposed development site post-construction, it is worth noting that section 3.25 of the Mayer Brown Transport Assessment admits that the site accessibility index is zero, due to its rural location away from major roads and its poor access to public transport.

The document then attempts to describe Cuxton’s accessibility by means other than a car as meeting national and local planning criteria for accessibility. This is not supportable. Bus and train services do not directly connect with any major transport hub, with drop-off points located well away from the proposed facility.

The Outline Delivery and Services Management plan is also flawed.  It states (1.11) that 3 HGV deliveries will be made per day for import and export.  This does not allow for the seasonal nature of the business.  If we assume this means “3 per working day” then this means approximately 750 HGV vehicles to site per annum (or 1500 HGV transits), with the majority arriving in 3 months over harvest time.  If we assume that 75% of HGV deliveries are seasonal, this means that around 10 HGVs per day will be arrived at peak season.

HGV deliveries will supposedly be restricted to 6-7 pm and 4-5pm. The latter times clearly clash with school run times. This also indicates that morning deliveries will be made at anti-social times (defined as operation outside of normal business hours by both trade unions and mental health professionals).

Sections 1.15-1.21 rely entirely on the goodwill of delivery drivers to minimise site nuisance noise arising from deliveries and do not say what action will taken to enforce compliance.

So, villagers of Cuxton, if you ignore this one, then you really can’t complain in the event that the tourist and vineyard maintenance traffic clogs Bush Road and turns any journey to or from your home into a logistical nightmare.

You were warned.

The Grapes Of Wealth Revisited...

Monaco-based billionaire Mark Dixon is the driving force behind Jersey-based Regus (now IWG), a hugely successful multinational corporation that provides serviced offices to clients on a contract basis.  He is less well-known as the owner of Vineyard Farms UK Ltd, the company that acquired the 300 hectare spread of CourtFarm and Brookers Farm back in 2019 for a sum of around £7m, with the ostensible intention of establishing one of the UK’s largest vineyards in Luddesdown.

Luddesdown valley, summer 2017 pre-vineyard...

With Regus as his main money-spinner, it would seem that vineyards are very much just a hobby for Mr. Dixon. Indeed, he recently told American lifestyle magazine Wine Spectator that he had “given up golf and has taken up farming as something to do on the weekends”.

Immediately after his Luddesdown acquisition, an open evening was held at the nearby Golden Lion pub to present plans for an “organic” vineyard (whatever that is), a gesture much appreciated by the local residents. 

The Gravesham Conservatives web-page was full of the promises made that evening:

“Planting of the young vines (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) will start in April, harvest in 3 years time, with sales of sparkling wine at the door of the vineyard in 2022. There will be lots of community involvement in helping to make this a success, particularly at harvest time when everything will be done by hand”, it gushed.

Local enthusiasm soon began to evaporate, however, as the real impact of the new vineyard upon the area became apparent. Long-established hedgerows were crudely hacked back and the land deep-ploughed, rendering ancient footpaths almost unusable and turning the previously verdant fields into unsightly, dusty, chalk-strewn deserts.

Luddesdown valley. deep ploughed...

Unabashed and as shrewd as ever, however, Mr. Dixon saw that Brexit had caused the price of UK farmland to collapse as its supporters had intended, turning the economics of UK land acquisition by overseas investors from “unreasonable” to “reasonable” (as he said in the aforementioned The Wine Spectator). At the time, there was also a lot of EU cash slopping about in the form of CAP grants for vineyards (and vineyards certainly became suddenly fashionable in the UK) but whether Mr. Dixon and others took advantage of this largesse before Brexit slammed the door on such things, I don’t know.

Luddesdown vineyard, May 2021. Two years on, so where are the vines, then...?

Following this Brexity zeitgeist, he subsequently proceeded to buy Upper Bush Farm (from Mexican-based Cemex) in the adjacent village of Cuxton, but with a lot less public fanfare or local outreach than the Luddesdown acquisition. Vine planting in Bush Valley started in May 2020, albeit in a far less extensive or destructive fashion than in Luddesdown. Indeed, some locals wondered why the planting had only occurred in limited areas of the valley. What could be going on, they wondered?

Fast forward to now, and the vines planted in Luddesdown valley in 2019 still seem to be struggling. Any harvesting in 2022 will be lucky to fill a couple of buckets, hardly enough to make commercial wine production commercially viable.

As for the staffing of the Vineyard Farms Ltd UK portfolio, a combination of Brexit and coronavirus is anticipated to render the hiring of overseas labour a whole lot harder in the future.

Coronavirus has also not been good for Mr. Dixon’s office-renting business. Last time I checked, he was down to his last $1.7 billion dollars (or half a Bernie Ecclestone, which sounds really small when you put it that way). Working from home has now become the norm, rendering the concept of renting office space from a third party rather passé, at least temporarily. Indeed, IWG’s share price collapsed from 460p in January 2020 to 160p by mid-March, once the first lockdown started to bite.

Court Farm, June 2021. Note the big steel tanks...

Whatever the reasons, Mark Dixon now appears to have lost interest in running established UK vineyards: his two other working UK wineries (Kingscote in West Sussex and Sedlescombe in East Sussex) are both up for sale after only a few years of ownership.

Vineyard Farms Ltd has also moved on. Its holding company changed its name to MDCV UK Ltd in May 2019, with one of its two remaining directors curiously listed as “Yellowstone Holdings S.A.R.L.” a name appearing in the notorious “Paradise Papers”.

Company names are normally changed when a business is in trouble, or is changing its focus. What can it all mean for Luddesdown and Cuxton?

The site manager of MDCV UK Ltd is Holly DeWale, whose LinkedIn profile lists her previous occupations as a marketing manager, an English teacher, a freelance publicist and an “events and gala co-ordinator”: she is also the daughter of one Mark Dixon (owner of MDCV Ltd). Looking at the bigger picture, Holly’s background seems to be ideally suited to the hospitality arena, which possibly tells us all we need to know about the focus of MDCV UK Ltd (Mark Dixon’s Corporate Vineyards?).

Planting vines, May 2020, Upper Bush...

Still, in these Johnsonian times, who needs experts? After all, her father’s business empire can doubtless provide any expertise she might need for all things associated with modern UK viniculture, such as estate surveying, pushing through planning permission and then building on the land.

Indeed, overseas speculators already own huge swathes of the UK – “taking back control” I think it’s called. Predictably, the latest Queen’s speech announced measures that drive a bulldozer through current planning regulations, in much the same way that Boris’s chums will soon be driving bulldozers through the green belt to rake in the Brexit bonanza that they lied and schemed so hard for. They are even trashing wildlife protection for the same reason, although it will still (for the moment) be illegal to harass and even kill badgers and plough up their setts, simply because they are in the way of a landowner’s plans...

The price of development land in North Kent was around £7 million per hectare in 2017. It won’t have gone down since then, that’s for sure. MDCV’s investment in prime, London-adjacent, easily accessible areas of Cuxton and Luddesdown covers around 450 hectares and is looking good for them. 

Indeed, MDCV wasted little time on that score. A geological survey team was soon seen out in Upper Bush, taking samples to test the land’s suitability for bearing what will ostensibly be a new wine factory and visitor’s centre, to be plonked on the hill overlooking Bush Valley, with a new access road to be smashed up near what was once the historic, peaceful and beautiful little hamlet of Upper Bush. After all, they wouldn’t want all that mess and disruption in their own backyard in Luddesdown now they’ve got a much more accessible site in Cuxton to build on, would they?

Court Lodge, Luddesdown, listed headquarters of Vineyard Farms/MDCV UK Ltd...

Cuxton Parish Council’s first “Vineyard Update” told us:

“The current plan is to create a Vineyard Vault Visitors Centre in land to the south of Upper Bush and create a new entrance way leading from Bush Road to a car park, from which visitors can walk to the vault centre. This is going to comprise a semi underground design which will apparently blend into the landscape no doubt visual presentations of the design will soon be available. Much discussion took place on the way that the whole project will be organic and bio-diverse and achieve net zero carbon emissions. The proposed development will also provide 75-100 local employment opportunities. This is a major planning application which will affect the village and whilst it appears every effort is being made by the company and world renowned architect Lord Foster to reduce the environmental impact of the Vineyard Vault…”

In amongst all the empty, trendy eco-clichés, the most shocking thing was the involvement of “world renowned architect” Lord Foster. As a result, you can absolutely 100% guarantee that this planned “visitor centre” will be huge, expensive, and vainglorious.

This, as it transpires, has already proved to be perfectly correct. No sooner was the electronic ink dry on this page than dear old local click-bait news site Kent Online released some “architect’s impressions” of Mr. Dixon’s new baronial castle. 

No garish glass boxes for him a la that arch-destroyer of Kent’s countryside, developer Mark Quinn, who has just gained permission for a similar sort of venture only thirty miles or so down the A2 at Canterbury. (One wonders how the “market” can support two such similar facilities so close together…)

Instead, Mr. Dixon has gone for the full "Bond villain" feel, a subterranean plonk factory, no less. One can almost imagine him at the head of a polished table in front of his terrified business associates, sitting in a steel swivel chair and stroking a long-haired white cat...

Well, maybe not. Nevertheless, the scale and grandiosity of the proposals are breath-taking. It is a true Fosterian design, a futuristic flying-saucer of a monument to his client’s wealth and power. 

Lord Foster's Flying Saucer...

Close Encounters of the Foster Kind...

Poor old Cuxton (and particularly Upper Bush) won’t know what’s hit it.

Upper Bush is a lovely, peaceful place with a rich local history, having been farmed for hundreds of years by working class folk who scratched a hard living from its soil. The nature of the valley has already changed in many respects, with the planting of the dull monoculture of vines and the erection of its ugly galvanised scaffolding and miles of associated steel wire. It looks more like some sort of giant radio aerial rather than a vineyard at the moment. The flying saucer and the wine factory won't really change things that much more from a visual perspective, though the traffic noise and congestion will. Lower Bush and Cuxton are going to get a lot busier. And all in the name of a passing fad...

It has to be admitted that the design being proposed for the visitor’s centre is spectacular, although whether the promised vision materialises in reality is another question. Indeed, many local people want to see this thing built.

Foster's Flying Saucer in situ

Every bit of countryside in Kent is under attack from developers, it seems. Not a week goes by without more “exciting developments” being announced that devour yet more of our ever-dwindling local countryside. This is an overcrowded part of the world. We all need unspoiled open spaces to get away from each other every now and then. We have to stop believing in this “build to grow” mantra. It's not the sixties any more. 

There is no actual need for Foster’s Flying Saucer and its associated industrial buildings in Upper Bush, or anywhere else. What is the imperative? Where is the pressing public demand for such a thing? Wineries? Fancy restaurants? Corporate hospitality venues? Wine processing plants? Kent has lots of them already.

Should precious habitat be sacrificed for just another plonk shop, a glorification of Vineyard Farms/MDCV UK’s business (which, as already explained, is really only all about owner Mark Dixon’s weekend hobby)?.

In an ideal world, no, it shouldn’t. But, of course, things are far from ideal…

Bush Valley, June 2021...

The UK has been effectively destroyed by forty years of free-market Tory kleptocracy. Our rulers have sold off our basic industries, our utilities, our transport and our communications systems to their shady supporters, nearly all of whom are overseas speculators. As a nation, we now make nothing of value and pretty soon, will own nothing of value.

And now the very land under our feet is in their sights. UK farmers are being deliberately driven out of business and left with no option but to sell their land to speculators, many of whom are not UK-based. Our farmland is the country’s final set of Crown Jewels, one which provides the most basic of human needs, the means to grow food. Lose this and we lose the ability and skills to even feed ourselves. At the same time, a bonfire of the planning regulations will allow said speculators to build houses, houses, houses on what was once prime agricultural land, fuelling the ongoing Southsea Bubble-style property market and allowing them to leech yet more billions out of the country and into their tax-free offshore bank accounts before it all comes crashing down.

What other country in the world is run like this?

Flying saucer incoming. Bush Valley, June 2021...

Against this background, the plans for Upper Bush put forward by Vineyard Farms Ltd look positively philanthropic. Ten years ago, proposals like these would have been laughed out of the planning department offices. “You want to build a WHAT?! On green belt prime farmland…?”

Now we are reduced to be being pathetically grateful for them, like a whipped dog that is grateful to its abusive master for merely slapping it, rather than kicking it. “At least its not houses...”, we’ll mutter.

In reality, it appears that this development is the least worst option of those actually available, other than just leaving us alone. We can be consoled with the thought that at least the area already has a history of rich men’s vanity projects. Think Darnley mausoleum…

Vanity building projects in the area are not a new thing...

Despite it being a product of sixties baby-boomer urban sprawl, Cuxton has a pleasant vibe about it which is very unusual, almost unique these days. The majority of its people have a fierce pride in their village, its history and its surrounding countryside, in a way that you just don’t find in other superficially similar places (although some newcomers to the village seem to have a more selfish and insouciant attitude, sadly).

Having written that, local reaction to Vineyard Farms' proposals have been strangely muted so far, early days though it is.

Most people seem to be resigned to the project already being a done deal. After all, the Tories who run Medway Council still have vainglorious aspirations to “city” status (ever since its blundering led to Rochester losing that title) and, given the offer of a swanky new development with the cachet of Lord Foster, will unreservedly throw its backing behind the lofty promises of Vineyard Farms/MDCV UK Ltd, whatever the local impact. Our local MPs are all tame Tory lobby fodder (and like the idea of rich people doing just as they please anyway) and so will do nothing of practical value.

Thus begins the charade of “consultation” with the local peasantry.

The Luddesdown experience has already demonstrated the Vineyard Farms UK Ltd modus operandi: act first, sort out any problems or seek permission later. Ploughing up ancient footpaths because ploughing around them would be inconvenient? Oh, OK, we’ll run a tractor up and down them later to flatten them out a bit. Planning permission for big steel tanks in Court Farm? Nah, we’ll worry about that after we’ve put them up.

Coronavirus has given them the perfect excuse to hide from any angry or concerned Cuxton residents behind a wall of remote video conferences and PR exercises. Questions must be submitted in advance, and so far they haven't answered any awkward ones. What about construction traffic and tourist access problems in already-congested Bush Road? What are they going to do with the tens of thousands of tonnes of chalk spoil that the construction of their underground bunker is going to create? How will the long-established footpaths be kept open, if at all?

Not important. Mere quibbles put up by a bunch of NIMBYs.

Welcome to Tory, Brexity England, where the distant whim of an overseas billionaire tax exile can now blight a little village like Cuxton and its inhabitants with impunity. The village of Cuxton is to be subsumed to the glory of Vineyard Farms UK/MDCV UK Ltd. and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Even protesting about such things is being made much more difficult.  And any little difficulties with planning permission can soon be sorted out with a small donation to the Tory Party if push comes to shove, anyway...

Historic little Cuxton, gateway and overflow car park for the Kentish Wine Vaults. The village is about to become subordinate to the demands and purposes of Foster’s Flying Saucer. The initials say it all, really. 

So it seems likely that the people of Cuxton will just have to get used to the construction traffic, the associated dust and noise, the alien influx of construction workers, the annexation of a big part of their habitat and the subsequent roar of high-powered German cars and 4x4s as the rich tourists and visiting businessmen speed down little Bush Road through the village, trying to overtake all of the grape juice tankers, wine bottle lorries and factory delivery vehicles to get to Mr. Dixon’s new Xanadu (at least, until the inevitable Cuxton by-pass gets smashed through what’s left of the local countryside from the Peters bridge roundabout to join up with the proposed new Thames crossing).

Whatever happens, another quiet corner of North Kent will be gone forever, to be replaced by nothing of long-lasting, real substance whatsoever. Give it twenty years and it will all have been sold on for housing anyway. The current fashion for sparkling wine in the UK will change as Brexit bites and people go back to buying stuff they actually need (like food, which already is becoming expensive and scarce – ooh, those sunlit uplands…). Billionaires also tend to get bored of their possessions pretty quickly: they always want a larger super-yacht, a more impressive personal jet, or a bigger vineyard for that matter (Mr. Dixon soon sold off his other UK vineyards when this one came on to the horizon). In the longer term, climate change will not be good for the delicate little vines should the UK get cooler and drier as predicted...

All I can suggest is for you to get out there and enjoy the Upper Bush valley countryside now, this minute, while you can, before the fences and barbed wire go up and the excavators start hollowing out the hillside and piling up the mountains of chalk Lord knows where. 

In particular, take in the sweeping view of the valley from the top of the hillside just off the footpath on the other side of the trees leading up from Dean Valley.

View from where the flying saucer is going, looking west. June 2021...

Take pictures to remind our children and our grandchildren of how wonderful it all used to be. I am sure that Vineyard Farms (or whatever they want to call themselves) will be fencing it off pretty soon.

They won’t want the non-paying peasantry walking all over the green roof of their new luxury bunker or through their exclusive vineyards, will they?

Vines and vandalism...

Vine planting at Upper Bush...

..and so it begins...

Bush Valley ploughed...

At least it wasn't deep-ploughed and turned into a desert like Luddesdown was. Footpaths have also been preserved.  Perhaps Vineyard Farms have learned a bit since first arriving on the scene...

Church Hill, nettles cut down...

Unfortunately, the lack of wildlife concern is not confined to Bush Valley. I appreciate that land has to be managed to stop becoming a bramble and hawthorn-choked wilderness, but I just wonder if the same ends could be achieved without purging the grasslands of any wildlife, particularly insects, which are having a hard enough time as it is. Last year we had the hawthorns cut back in March, thus eliminating the blossom for that year and and scaring away the nesting thrushes and blackbirds.  The grass was also cut back in June, right at the height of the butterfly season, thus destroying the colonies of Ringlets, Blues and Browns. This year, they have cut the nettles down in May, just at the time when the Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks are laying eggs. This is particularly grievous as the Small Tortoiseshells are becoming rare and were barely hanging on on the hill as it was.  Maybe they could just do the hack-backs in September/October instead...?

Peacock larvae on a patch of nettles the mower man missed...

Cuxton from Upper Church Hill...

Female Silver-washed Frittilary...

I saw a male in Mays Wood on the 19th (see last post).  I hope they can establish a colony there.

Underside, showing the silver bands that give the species its common name...

Cuxton's Field of Deception...

One of Cuxton’s more interesting WW2 secrets was the decoy airfield at the top end of Bush Valley.

Bush Valley, looking south from Upper Bush...

Cuxton’s decoy airfield was part of a British WW2 decoy programme which began in January 1940 and developed into a complex deception strategy, using four main methods: day and night dummy aerodromes (`K’ and `Q’ sites); diversionary fires (`QF’ sites and `Starfish’); simulated urban lighting (`QL’ sites); and dummy factories and buildings.  Urban decoy fires were known as `SF’, `Special Fires’ and Starfish, to distinguish them from the smaller QF installations.  These were the most technically sophisticated of all the types, with each Starfish replicating the fire effects an enemy aircrew would expect to see when their target had been successfully set alight.

This campaign of illusion was masterminded by an engineer and retired Air Ministry officer, Colonel John Fisher Turner, who formed a team of film studio tradesmen, carpenters, and engineers for the construction of an elaborate network of dummy airfields and hundreds of decoy sites

These decoy sites were set up in large areas of open space to protect the real sites they were imitating, which could be towns, military bases, factories, airfields or railway marshalling yards and docks, in an ingenuous attempt to trick the Luftwaffe.

Across Bush Valley towards Cuxton, view from the edge of Longbottom Wood...

Cuxton’s simple “Q-site” night-time decoy consisted of a double row of “landing lights” powered by a generator, with the probable intent of protecting the nearby RAF 11 Group airfield at Gravesend located near the top of Thong Lane. 

Probably to the relief of Upper Bush residents it did not attract many enemy bombs, but it may have  induced one of our own aircraft to crash.  The aircraft was returning from a raid of Chemmitz on 6th March 1945, in a crippled condition and without radio contact.  The American pilot and his Canadian crew, perhaps fooled by the decoy airfield, crashed their aircraft into woodland on Bavins Bank and all were sadly killed.

It is believed that there were around 230 dummy airfields in the UK and 400 dummy urban and industrial sites, although very little now survives of any of these decoys, most having been cleared after the war.

The blockhouse that held the generator for the Bush Valley decoy landing lights can still be found in Longbottom Wood, however...

The generator is long gone but the inside of the structure is accessible and the concrete plinth where the generator stood still remains...

Opposite what was probably once the generator room, another chamber with a roof hatch and ladder can be seen. Perhaps this was where the fuel tank for the generator once was...

Although there is no fencing or signage, I am guessing that the woodland is privately owned, and that the owner would not like too many visitors tromping through and disturbing his pheasants to see this piece of Cuxton's WW2 history.

Update:  I have since found out that the land has been acquired by Vineyard Farms Ltd. They do not care much for trespassers, so be warned. Nevertheless, the location of the blockhouse is as below....

The blockhouse is actually indicated on the OS map for the area, so its location is no great secret. If you do visit the area, be careful. The condition of the site has deteriorated since I was first there in December 2018, with the blockhouse now being surrounded by brambles and a half-arsed attempt to screen it off with Heras fencing. So please respect both your own safety and the property ownership,  and don't go climbing over it. The site could be made into quite an interesting and safe area to visit with a little thought, but I don't see that happening somehow. Instead, I think it is more likely to be completely fenced off or simply demolished.

On the opposite eastern edge of Bush Valley field from Longbottom Wood runs the North Downs Way. Heading south from Upper Bush takes you across Dean Farm valley, which was looking very picturesque in the late autumn sunshine...

Dean Farm...

Dean Farm Valley...