Some residents may have noticed, that some works are taking place on the farmland opposite the shops in Mitchley Ave.
It has been established via the Council that this work is bona fide and the new tenant of the land intends taking a hay crop on a commercial basis. The tenant has been made aware by the Council, of all the Tree Preservation Orders on trees around the field.
We have subsequently found out via our Facebook page who the new tenant is. This message was posted on 19 May;
“Hello Riddlesdown residents,
We would like to introduce ourselves we are Church Farm Services and we are the new tenants of the land at Mitchley Ave and Mitchley Hill if you would like to find out more about us please visit our website or our Facebook page.
We are intending to reseed the fields with long term grass leys this autumn and cut it for hay and haylage next summer.
We hope that all the local residents will find that we look after the fields in an appropriate way. Rest assured at our home farm in Woldingham we have over 100 species of birds and our farming practices take wildlife in general into consideration.”
This is good news, as the field has been left uncultivated for about 3 years now.
We also understand it is the intention of Church Farm Services to take hay crop from the other piece of farmland off Rectory Park / Mitchley Hill. The Council advise that from their records, there are no tree restrictions on this field.