Anger at ‘creeping’ racehorse stables

A racehorse trainer has been slammed for “creeping” development at an isolated Herefordshire spot.

Mr T Lacey trains national hunt racehorses at the 83-hectare Sapness Farm near the Woolhope, following permission in 2013 to convert and extend existing farm buildings, then retrospective approval of further horse-training facilities in 2018.

He later installed two more steel-framed twin stable blocks and new turn-out pens – but according to planning officer Joshua Evans, only submitted the planning application in response to an enforcement investigation, in 2020.

The application was passed to Herefordshire Council’s planning committee in 2022, when a decision was deferred pending additional reports on ecology, manure and waste management and hydrology.

The original and revised plans drew objections from 17 individuals and groups.

But since the first committee meeting a certificate of lawfulness had been granted for the previous yard and seven stables. The case then came back to the committee to decide on this month.

Local resident Jeremy Loyd said the “long series of applications” had together had “a seismic effect” on the area, particularly its traffic, for which local roads were “wholly unsuitable”.

For the applicant, Marc Willis said what was now being proposed would not have markedly greater impact on waste or traffic than what had already been permitted.

Committee member Coun Richard Thomas said the farm was “totally unsuitable for the operations being carried on” but as the planning “creep” could not now be reversed, “there’s not much we can do other than put tough conditions with it”.

Coun Bruce Baker said that the proposal to remove manure from the anticipated 60 horses twice a year “is a huge amount, requiring a fleet of trucks”.

“But there is not much we can do – if we refused, it would go through on appeal,” he said.

The council’s development manager Kelly Gibbons added the committee’s site visit had found “further unauthorised structures” at the farm, “which have been passed to enforcement”.

Coun Mark Woodall warned that on the evidence of the visit, traffic from the farm and other neighbouring businesses “could destroy the road”, adding: “Is that our responsibility?”

Following a vote, committee chairman Coun Terry James said the planning application was approved, “however reluctantly”.