A knocked-back request to build a private half-mile road across open farmland in the Cotswolds is still on the agenda after the landowners renewed their request – and told planners the bid is strictly agricultural.

Stroud District Council pushed back on a prior notification request to build the new access route lodged earlier this year for farmland at Nind, close to Wotton-under-Edge.

Dairy and beef farmers Mike and Chris King of PE King (Bristol) Ltd, bought the land in January 2024  after it went on sale in 2023 as part of the £3.2m selloff of both Haw Park and adjoining Leys Farm by rural agents David James .

In a planning statement from Bristol chartered surveyors North and Letherby, Ebley Mill has been told that the new access is vital for their farm's business, providing access between two key areas of land bought last year.

The surveyors said: "The land off Nind Lane extends to approximately 62.8 ha (155.2 acres) of arable and grassland. This was purchased by PE King (Bristol) Ltd in January 2024 to provide additional land on which to produce forage (silage and maize) to support the dairy and beef business. The agricultural land has been used for commercial agricultural production for decades. At the time of writing, the land has been used in connection with the current landowners' agricultural trade or business for one year and seven months."

As the new owners, Mike and Chris King have a "substantial dairy and beef business across a number of farms in South Gloucestershire and Stroud District," the statement said, with current business amounting to some 810 milking cows, 550 replacement youngstock and 330 "beef stores", which are young beef cattle, who have been weaned and are in the process of being fattened ahead of slaughter.

To justify the new access, the surveyors added: "In order to control feed and bedding supplies for the dairy and beef enterprises, the business has purchased outlying agricultural units on which to grow its own forage and cereals. This method of production reduces reliance upon fluctuating prices of silage and bedding when bought on the open market."

They added: "The business is more resilient during years of poor weather (and associated poor yields) and has an excess for sale to other farm business following good harvests."

The design for the access, which would be 805m in length and be 4m wide, would comprise a grey stone base with geotextile membrane and a final stone track surface, the applicant said.

But Elizabeth Powell, SDC planning officer, told the applicant earlier this week that the bid "would appear as a new isolated track that may affect the appearance of the nearby Cotswold National Landscape. Further assessment must also be made with regards to the nearby public right of way and any impacts on biodiversity, due to part of the proposal falling within an amber zone for newts".

One resident who lives close to the farmland, and who requested anonymity, told Punchline: "Any bid to change the farmland from its current state is going to touch a nerve. We saw the Hawthorns, a new housing development smack next door to this farm, being allowed despite it being outside the town boundary and in the AONB. New tracks open land up – the fear can be that they literally pave the way for development."

Meanwhile, in a social media update on its bid to preserve some of the land sold in 2023 which abuts the edge of Wotton and is a popular dog walking area, the action group Wotton Community Land Trust says it has been successful in acquiring Brown's Piece which was marketed by Bruton Knowles as an aspect of the farms' sale in 2023.

Valued as an "unkempt" wild area and green lung on the edge of the town, the largely overgrown 4.5 hectare parcel of land is historically unfarmed and intersected by a tracery of footpaths.

Campaigners successfully argued for the social value of the land, which sits between the town centre access off Symn Lane and new estates which were built beyond Water Lane, south-east of the town, in ongoing stages after the second world war.

Through its website, the Trust has sold investors who collectively chipped in more than £85,000 for the land which, subject to contract, was now "secured for the community – forever."

● Wotton and Kingswood's parish councils have been given until the end of September for their views on the farm's bid.