Friend is definitely a bona fide farmer

He also admonished me slightly for using the title ‘chair’, saying that was a piece of furniture and went on to describe his wife as a chairman. I was actually attempting to be politically correct because although chairman is generally recognised as a term that is gender neutral I thought people may have taken offence if I had labelled her as such.

Other contributors had suggested that the district councillor would not have voted for the sex club if it had been in her “own back yard”, whereupon I felt that it should be mentioned that a farming friend of mine had an application for a farm barn rejected in her own constituency. Mr Gallagher stated that my friend “appealed the decision”. How did he know that? How does he know who I am talking about?

My friend did actually appeal the decision to the Planning Inspectorate (not the “Bristol centre” whatever that is) but Mr Gallagher’s comments that my friend was described by PINS as not a “bona fide farmer but a man who owns a field and a collection of old agricultural machinery” is absolute rubbish. PINS never said anything of the kind and their response to the appeal is in the public domain if he cares to look.

In fact, for the record, my friend tells me that he has, over quite a few decades, grown many thousands of tonnes of grains (wheat, barley, and oats) quite often to a standard that meant it was accepted into the food industry - and pulses that, if again of the right quality, were exported to countries whose population eat field beans, as well as growing potatoes and producing red meat in the form of lamb.

If that isn’t a bona fide farmer, then I don’t know what is.

Maybe there is more than one farmer in his wife’s constituency who have had their applications for farm barns rejected because the words that he used in connection with my friend’s application bear no resemblance whatsoever to his situation.

Mr Gallagher makes mention of an apology in his piece and my friend has told me that he would be prepared to accept one from him but only if printed in this newspaper. - George Robertson, via email.