A planning application for a new farm shop, café and outdoor children’s play area at a family-run farm in Ducklington has been refused on the grounds it wouldn't stock enough local produce.

WODC’s rural business development officer expressed concerns that 50 per cent of the goods sold would not be from the immediate vicinity.

The report said: “Farm shops should be the ultimate in local food. Generally, farm shops start small with 'farm gate' sales of produce from the farm, move on to selling out of a small shed for limited hours and they expand as the levels of produce and the local demand grow.

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“This proposal is starting with a large premises which would appear to be much larger than the volume of produce the farm is capable of filling it with.

“With the greatest respect in the world, the shop does not need to sell water buffalo ice cream from another farm 72 miles away - that goes against the ethos of local food and what a farm shop should be.”

Randal and Helen Strainge, of Ducklington Farm, are planning to offer high welfare butchery and deli counters at the shop and to sell craft drinks, fresh, frozen and pantry goods as well as weigh-your-own dry ingredients.

They also hope the Ducklington Farm Shop and Café will sell products from their own farm.

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The Strainges already run a B&B at their farmhouse, a self-catering cottage and a busy caravan site.

Mrs Strainge said: "The time had come for us to decide on the future of the farm, for us to continue a farm shop and café was the next logical step.”

Some 103 letters of support of the application were received - a number from people living outside of West Oxfordshire. Most said the shop would boost the local area's economy and could become a local tourist attraction.

At a meeting of West Oxfordshire District Council’s Lowlands Area Planning Sub-Committee the item was refused as per the planning officer’s recommendation.

Officers said it proposed a large new building in the open landscape remote from the existing farm complex.

Refused

The reasons for refusal were its siting, design, scale and location, and that all goods would be supplied from a 30 mile radius of the farm shop, which would not accord with the local plan policy that 'farm shops will be permitted where there they form part of a diversification scheme to sell produce from the farm or farms in the immediate vicinity'.

"As a result, the proposed farm shop and cafe would be tantamount to a new unfettered retail unit within the open countryside" and again conflicted with the local plan.

Officers were advised to work with the applicant to submit a revised plan within the council’s policy.

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