Help Save Whitehouse Farm — OctaWeb Call to Action

@​everyone

Whitehouse Farm need your help!

A farm, called Whitehouse Farm, quite local to us here at OctaWeb needs your help!

This is an unusual request, however we want to help with the outreach we have.

Please see their post below:

Please share this video far and wide and if you can spare two minutes, sign our petition. (Please do not donate, we are not asking for donations)

Petition⬇️
https://c.org/QnSysMVcJL

This video is very long, I do apologise. However I want to be as transparent as possible. We have exhausted every avenue and truly have no clue what we can do next. This video is to answer any questions you may have.

If you don’t want to watch, below are some key points:

• In the last couple of years, we have spent over £100,000 on planning applications and the associated costs. Many of which have been rejected, as a small family run business, this sort of investment without return is detrimental.

• We have already met with our local MP, there wasn’t much he could do unfortunately.

• We have asked to meet with the head of planning for years, after finally securing a meeting, there was no real outcome.

• This area of the farm is included in our original plans which was approved by the council in 1997

• Whitehouse Farm has been an established site for over 100 years. Once housing a TB hospital, a home for orphan boys, a poultry farm, commercial units, before eventually becoming what it is today.

• We have planted over 4000 trees in the past couple of years. We have 640 solar panels. We work with many conservation groups mentioned in the video.

• Our softplay extension was approved just steps away from this area. The softplay extension was not on the original plans of the farm.

• We have many letters of support that we included in our planning application. From local schools, local disability groups, local tourism boards and many other real people from our area who this affects.

• We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for a level playing field. We are asking for impartial decision making. We are asking for those judging to look at the whole picture. We are asking for change!

• An appeal of ours got rejected in June 2025 for log cabins at the farm. This would turn our day visitor attraction to an overnight attraction. Increasing jobs and tourism in the local area. The main issue was green belt. In the same week, an application for log cabins, a farm shop, a softplay and a garage got approved just 1.5 miles away from us. The reason being, despite them also being in the green belt, the benefit outweighed the impact to the green belt. Please can I add, our application for log cabins has been ongoing since 2019.

We are a small, family run business. Keith and Sheila who started this venture were simply humble poultry farmers. Never could they have imagined what it would become. A special place to so many. All we want is to continue to grow and to have support from our council.

We hope that our petition not only resolves the issue of the new park but it also ignites a well needed conversation between us and our local planners which we have been begging for.

We didn’t want to do this but we truly felt we no longer had a choice.

Thank you for reading.