Jailed farmer fined for more environmental crimes

A Herefordshire farmer has admitted organising the illegal felling of trees shortly before he was jailed for another environmental offence.

John Price from Kingsland was fined £1,750 plus costs of more than £300.

He pleaded guilty at Hereford magistrates' court to illegally felling a large area of alder, willow, hazel and thorn trees near Ludlow that were around 50 years old.

Price was previously jailed for 12 months after hiring diggers and bulldozers to illegally rip up trees along the River Lugg in Hereford.

The Crown Prosecution Service said Forestry Commission agents were told in February 2022 that men with heavy machinery were clearing an area in woodland around Ryelands Farm near the Herefordshire-Shropshire border.

The men said they were working for Price and denied knowing they needed a licence to fell the trees.

The 69-year-old, of Day House Farm, did not reply to letters from the Forestry Commission which then discovered he was already in prison for the previous offence.

On Wednesday, Price told the magistrates he had instructed the workmen to "coppice" the trees, which is legal, but the court rejected this, the CPS said.

In April 2023, he was jailed for 12 months which was later reduced on appeal to 10 months, and ordered to pay £600,000 prosecution costs.

Natural England and the Environment Agency said the River Lugg felling was the worst river-side destruction the organisations had seen.

Senior crown prosecutor George Ward said: "John Price earns a living from the land as a farmer but clearly has no real regard for it."

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]