Initial plans go in for Tamba hemp

Thursday 12 December 2019

The first plans have now been submitted to transform a well-known family attraction into a hemp farm.

Initial steps to bring ‘Retreat Farm’ to life on the area where the glasshouses surround the now-closed Tamba Park have been formally taken, with the company behind the scheme – revealed as Northern Leaf Ltd. – having submitted proposals to clear the current site and build an eco-friendly staff accommodation unit.

It comes after Express revealed the intention to turn the park into a hemp farm.

At the time, part-owner of the site Jonathan Ruff explained that growing is expected to start next Spring.

Pictured: Jonathan Ruff's part-owner revealed the plans to turn the attraction into a hemp farm (Facebook/Tamba Park).

Now, the company has submitted its first planning application on the site to get the wheels in motion for its new venture.

The application, outlined in an accompanying Design Statement, is for the “partial clearance of [the] existing site to provide [a] suitable environment for the proposed Site Manager’s accommodation unit."

It’s proposed that the unit would house the Site Manager and their family.

This accommodation is proposed to take the form of a ‘green unit’, an innovation by Northern Leaf’s architects Origin, which is said to be a “low-impact, attractive and eco-sustainable building."

In fact, it is the same concept that Mr Ruff unsuccessfully put forward when he tried to get permission to build a holiday village on the same site back in 2018. The application was rejected primarily due to opposition from residents who argued the site should remain reserved for agricultural use.

Pictured: The family attraction has now been closed and the nearby glasshouse site could become a hemp farm.

Given that the site will be used for this purpose if the hemp farm is given the green light, Mr Ruff is hoping for a better reaction to the new plans. 

Drawing to a close, the design statement concludes: “In summary, this application serves to utilise already developed land, replacing an existing brownfield commercial site with a residential function that solely serves and remains ancillary to the wider agricultural facility of Retreat Farm. 

“Its replacement function provides environmental improvements which serve to repair and restore landscape character, with diminished intensity of use within an existing site that remains generally concealed from view from the public realm.”

The outcome of the application is still pending.