Food & Farming Strategy | The Ashfield Partnership in Romsey

Sustainability is about how we choose to live our lives and as our aim is to create communities that enable good choices, reconnecting people with local food and farming is one way we can achieve that.

A Sustainable Approach

As part of founder Tim Knatchbull's and the wider Ashfield Estate’s food and farming strategy, the partnership will make provision for food production close to and within the fabric of the three development schemes, Luzborough, Whitenap and Mountbatten Park.

This includes looking at ways we can help Ashfield residents grow their own food locally without putting strain on the environment and while fulfilling their nutritional needs and tastes. In growing our own or buying locally produced food, we save energy and carbon emissions in transportation, processing and packaging. We know where the food has come from, where it has been sourced and that it doesn’t contain hidden chemicals or preservatives.

Eating locally also supports the local economy, providing jobs for local farmers and retailers. And there’s something quietly satisfying in eating food you can trace from source to plate. Overall, this helps us choose healthier, more sustainable options that not only helps look after the environment, but ourselves too.

Design & Community Code

Each building at Luzborough, Mountbatten Park, and Whitenap has been, or will be, designed not so much to stand out but to contribute to making the place. Phases and streets may reveal a particular character but they will conform to the overall Masterplan which aims to secure the traditional Hampshire, specifically the Test Valley, vernacular.

Food and Farming Vision

The philosophy behind the food and farming vision is the recognition that the consumption of local food produced in a sustainable manner delivers multiple benefits to a community, reinforcing its identity and connectedness with the local ecology.

To deliver this connectedness, the project’s aims and objectives will include the development of a housing plan which is designed specifically around the connection of that community with its food production system.

It will include:

Easy access to locally and sustainably grown produce
Local food grown, packaged and transported in a sustainable way
Setting high standards of food production
Encouraging residents to compost waste to reintroduce nutrients
Providing education to communities about the benefits of local food
Monitoring the success of each initiative and adapting as necessary

Our overall aim is to encourage residents of the Ashfield communities and those surrounding towns and villages in Romsey to lead healthier, ‘greener’ lives by creating opportunities for choosing sustainably and locally produced food.