Farm Planning Consultants in Merseyside

Merseyside's farming coast

Beyond the city, Merseyside is surprisingly rural. Dairy herds graze the Wirral, the flat fields behind the Sefton dunes have grown asparagus for centuries, and the mossland soils north of Liverpool grow vegetables and cereals. If you need a new dairy building, a vegetable store, a roadside shop or a house for a relative, a farm planning consultant in Merseyside can steer you to approval.

What stands in the way

Green Belt covers much of the countryside, including around 47% of the Wirral. The Sefton coast carries some of the country's most important dune habitats, and low lying farmland near the coast and along the Alt faces real flood risk. Pressure for housing around every town makes officers cautious about anything new in the fields.

The questions pile up, the timetable slips and the cost grows. Draining and unfair: Merseyside farming families must battle simply to keep producing food.

The right guide for Merseyside

We understand how stressful it is to hold off on investment while a council deliberates. Rural planning is our specialist field, and the people we work for are farmers and landowners. We prepare agricultural permitted development, Class Q, Class R and full planning applications, and the Green Belt and protected coast are familiar ground for us. Our approvals record runs at 95%.

Your Merseyside plan, 3 steps

1. Call 01206 481981. Give us the background on your farm and what you plan to do.
2. We build the strategy. We look closely at Green Belt, coastal, habitat and flood issues, then choose a workable route.
3. We manage the council. We prepare the papers, submit them and negotiate until the council reaches its decision.

Merseyside councils and countryside

• Wirral Council
• Sefton Council
• Knowsley Council
• St Helens Borough Council
• Liverpool City Council
• The Merseyside Green Belt
• The Sefton coast and mosslands
• The Wirral countryside

We work with farms near Formby, Ince Blundell, Maghull, Lydiate, Rainford, Eccleston, Halewood, Prescot, Heswall, Thurstaston, Frankby and Greasby. If you farm further afield, we also have pages for Lancashire, Cheshire and the North West.

Merseyside produce worth knowing

Asparagus has been grown around Formby since perhaps the 1600s, and it is still sold from Larkhill Farm today. On the Wirral, dairy is the leading farm type, with a handful of herds using around 30% of the farmed land. Land here has always produced, and with the right consents yours can produce more.

Specialist help, not general agency

Fisher German and Savills, both active across the North West, are firms Merseyside landowners often use for estate management and sales. Foxes Rural is purely a farm planning firm, giving your application specialist attention throughout.

When it goes wrong

A refusal in the Green Belt or near the protected coast makes future applications harder. Starting work without consent risks enforcement and removal. And while you wait, costs climb and opportunities pass.

Your Merseyside farm, moving forward

Picture the new parlour or store in use, the farm shop open to locals and a home on the land for the next generation. Call Foxes Rural on 01206 481981 and we will get started.