The arrival of cows at this much loved Asset of Community Value is another blow to residents and wildlife

Somerset Council has once again caused bewilderment and anguish amongst residents near Packsaddle Community Fields, with more aggressive clearance work and, after a decades-long absence of cattle from the site, the introduction of a herd of 20 cows to graze there. The fact that this is happening while a controversial planning application to build 74 market-value houses on the fields is still pending has caused further consternation.  

The first residents knew about the plan to introduce cows to the fields was when a digger appeared, ripping out more field edges and dumping spoil on the hedge line to make way for a water trough. At least one birds nest was destroyed in the process, as witnessed by local residents, including Beki Arthurs. “I was watching a robin with a full beak of grubs disappear into the ivy and bramble hedge near where the digger was working. During the time it went off gathering again, the digger swept away the thicket. The robin returned and hopped from branch to branch. Only then did it dawn on me, it’s nest and fledglings had been flattened.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I expect more than one nest was sabotaged.” This has been reported to the police as a suspected wildlife crime and they are investigating. 

After the reckless clearances of July and August 2022, when the vegetation was razed to the ground in the middle of the nesting season and only two months into a ‘full season’ ecological survey by the developer, residents are understandably wary. On 30th March 2023, the community group People for Packsaddle submitted a Freedom of Information Request to Somerset Council in an attempt to uncover the true motives and chain-of-events behind the 2022 clearances. Somerset Council have so far failed to adequately respond to this request, despite it being nearly 75 working days overdue. The matter is presently with the Information Commissioner’s Office for resolution. 

People for Packsaddle has also asked Somerset Council to clarify why cows have been introduced to the fields so soon after they were designated as an Asset of Community Value and when they are so alive with wildlife. Their response has caused real anger, as Toby Culff of the group explains. 

“Somerset Council has told us the main reasons for introducing cows to the fields is to ‘prevent colonisation by reptiles and other fauna…during the preconstruction phase’. This disregards the facts that the fields are already teaming with wildlife, despite the best efforts of the Council last year, and that the planning application is yet to be determined. We are not in a pre-construction phase, yet the Council is behaving as if we are.  Their actions feel entirely presumptuous and partisan. We believe the Council degraded the ecological baseline as a result of its first clearance and intend to further degrade it with the introduction of cows.”

“Apparently, two of the Council’s ‘key priorities’ are to build “a greener, more sustainable Somerset” and “a healthy and caring Somerset”. Instead, the residents of our ordinary patch of North Frome have seen the Council wage a cynical, calculated, concerted campaign against them, designed to curtail their access to these cherished fieldsand to denude this verdant habitat of its rich, vital biodiversity. At every turn, Somerset Council has failed to properly consult with residents or its own Councillors, it has withheld and misrepresented the truth, and it has determinedly pursued its profit-first agenda above all else. Climate, conservation and community haven’t warranted a second thought, it appears. This is not how a Council should behave.”

Toby continued. “We’ve been told that Asset of Community Value status isn’t relevant and that there are no safety concerns associated to the introduction of cows to a space which is used on a daily basis by the community. However, the Council well knows that the Asset of Community Value status – a council designation – recognises the fields as being of special importance to local residents. The status was awarded on the basis that the fields “further the social well-being of the local community” and that their principal use is as “an accessible space for countryside recreation.” 

“The Health and Safety Executive has issued guidance to landowners advising against putting cattle into fields with footpaths if this can be avoided, but it appears that Somerset Council’s first priority is to ensure that planning permission is granted. They are, in effect, acting on behalf of the developer, LiveWest, and are prejudicing what should be an objective, impartial Council process.”

Describing the impact on, and reaction of, the local community, Toby concluded, “The cows have been here less than 48 hours, but the impact is already clear. Many residents – elderly people, families, people who have walked the fields for decades – have been in touch to say they’ll simply avoid the area now. It feels like this is exactly what the Council wanted, and I believe residents are entitled to feel besieged and betrayed. They know exactly what is going on here: the Council is putting profit before people, and they’ll simply trample on anything and anyone that gets in their way.”