Thriving Pagham farm is keen to carry on expanding

Barfoots of Botley wants to build a new cold store at Sefter Farm.

The scheme, submitted for planning approval to Arun District Council, will add 960sq metres of internal floor space to an existing building at the site.

The cold store is needed to enable the separation of produce such as sweetcorn, asparagus, courgette and pumpkin to preserve their freshness before they are distributed to supermarkets.

The farm, off Pagham Road, is Barfoots' head office and the company boasts it is Europe's largest grower of sweetcorn. More than 3,000 acres of corn and other vegetables are under cultivation at four sites.

It favours Pagham for its unique micro-climate, where high light levels are coupled with fertile soils and water availability.

The proposed cold store is described by Barfoots' planning agent, the Douglas Briggs Partnership, as a standard agricultural shed extension in keeping with the existing building and wider farm complex.

The intended expansion is at the south end of the existing building, next to the existing farm access road. Current vehicle movements to the farm will be unchanged.

An average of 24 HGV visits are made a day along with about 12 tractor-drawn trailers. The number of trailers is about to fall once a recently-approved anaerobic digester plant is built.

Barfoots employs more than 200 workers and regularly uses at least 100 West Sussex businesses. Of those, 35-plus are based in the Arun district.

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