Farm Planning Consultants in Somerset

Dairy, orchards and old stone barns: planning on Somerset farms

Somerset is grass country. Dairy herds, beef and sheep graze from the Levels to the hills, cider orchards line the valleys and Cheddar has been made here for centuries. Many farms also hold older stone barns that no longer suit modern stock. Cubicle shed, slurry store, a house for your successor or a fresh use for a redundant byre: a farm planning consultant in Somerset who knows the phosphate rules makes the difference.

Phosphates, floodplains and protected hills

Since 2020 the phosphates issue on the Somerset Levels and Moors has caught agricultural development that could increase herd size, including barns and slurry stores, and in the Axe catchment it reaches prior approvals too. The Levels themselves flood, as the winter of 2013 and 2014 showed when thousands of hectares of farmland sat under water for weeks. Exmoor National Park and the Mendip, Quantock and Blackdown Hills National Landscapes bring landscape tests, and the Bristol and Bath Green Belt covers much of the north. The new Somerset Local Plan is not due until 2029.

For a working farm that means uncertainty, extra reports and long waits. It is hard to plan for the future when the rules keep shifting under your feet. Farmers who produce Somerset's milk, cheese and cider deserve a fair and timely answer.

A guide who knows the way through

We know the strain of waiting on a decision while the business has to keep moving. Dairy farmers, graziers and rural landowners are the only people Foxes Rural works for. Livestock building prior approvals, Class Q conversions, Class R business uses and full applications are our bread and butter. We understand the phosphate rules, flood risk on the Levels and the landscape tests in the hills. Our approval record sits at 95%.

How we take your plans forward

1. Call 01206 481981. Fill us in on the herd, the acreage and the shed, store or conversion you need.
2. We build the strategy. Phosphates, floodplain or hills, we chart the consent route and the mitigation it will take before money is spent on drawings.
3. We manage the council. The application goes in from us, and we stay with the officer through every query until it is decided.

Somerset moors, hills and vales we serve

• Somerset Council area, from Taunton Deane to Mendip
• North Somerset
• Bath and North East Somerset
• Exmoor National Park
• The Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Blackdown Hills National Landscapes
• The Somerset Levels and Moors
• The Bristol and Bath Green Belt

We act for farms near Taunton, Bridgwater, Wells, Glastonbury, Frome, Shepton Mallet, Wincanton, Yeovil, Langport, Somerton, Chard, Crewkerne, Wellington and Dulverton. The county gathers each year at the Royal Bath and West Show and the Mid Somerset Show, both near Shepton Mallet, and we are proud to support the farmers who make them.

Somerset farms that lead the way

Yeo Valley grew from the Mead family farm at Blagdon. Thatchers has made cider at Myrtle Farm in Sandford for generations, Barber's has made Cheddar at Ditcheat since 1833 and Wyke Farms is run by the Clothier family near Bruton. Every one of them needed sheds, dairies and stores with consent in place. Your farm has every right to the same footing.

Focused on planning, nothing else

Greenslade Taylor Hunt, Symonds & Sampson and Stags are well known to Somerset farmers for agency, markets and estate work. Foxes Rural handles planning alone, which means your application never queues behind a sale or a valuation.

The cost of getting it wrong

A shed or slurry store that falls foul of the phosphate rules can stall for months or be refused. Building first and asking later can bring enforcement. And a stone barn left empty only loses value with every wet winter.

See your farm moving forward

Cows bedded down in a new shed, the stone barn lived in or let, and a farm on a sound footing for whoever follows. Call Foxes Rural on 01206 481981 to start your Somerset application.