Plan for £2m Lincolnshire caravan park to house foreign farm workers

The proposed caravan site would be near the village of Bennington in Lincolnshire

A Lincolnshire food producer is planning to spend £2m building a caravan park, sports pitch and games area for overseas farm workers.

The site near the village of Bennington could house around 200 seasonal labourers from Kazakhstan and Pakistan.

It is being proposed by T H Clements which supplies vegetables to major UK supermarkets.

The firm's managing director Chris Gedney said the use of foreign workers was vital for the UK's food production.

He said that UK workers did not apply to work in the fields.

"We've had crops wasted because of lack of labour," Mr Gedney said.

"So food security has to be a consideration.

"We'll give them the leisure facilities so that basically they will want to be here and they won't want to be anywhere else".

The proposed site would have 60 luxury caravans, an indoor games area and a communal sports field.

An application has been submitted to Boston Borough Council.

Some neighbours have objected, citing pressure on roads, doctors' surgeries and drainage.

The Nation Farmers' Union said only 11% of seasonal workers were UK residents

Food producers have said they found it difficult to attract British pickers to rural areas, despite offering increased wages.

In 2021, the Nation Farmers' Union said only 11% of seasonal workers were UK residents.

Analysis by Linsey Smith, rural affairs correspondent

Ice creams vans on a hot day, staff social nights and free lunches. Farmers have pulled out all of the stops to tempt a dwindling pool of seasonal agricultural workers to work for them.

Every time we cover their struggle for staff, we hear the same retort: why don't farmers offer these jobs to Brits?

They do. The problem is, British people typically don't want them. It's unfair to label British people as lazy: the situation is more complex.

Most people need a permanent job to secure a mortgage or pay rent and bills. Those commitments are impossible if you are only working six months a year when crops are ready.

Unemployment is also low meaning jobseekers have choice and these are physical, tiring, dirty jobs that start early and finish late.

As one farmer told me, it would be infinitely easier to employ Brits as he wouldn't have to pay translators or welfare officers to safeguard the travelling young people from exploitation.

Farmers are pinning their hopes on one thing to rescue them, robotics. For decades they've been told "it's another five years away". Until the robots move in, the seasonal workers are here to stay.

Justin Emery who runs an agricultural workers recruitment agency said employers were offering all kinds of facilities to attract foreign workers.

"We've got clients who have an onsite nightclub, an all-weather basketball pitch, indoor football," he said.

"The farms put a lot of effort making sure those workers have a good experience, because without the seasonal workers in the UK we wouldn't have food on our shelves."