Blain’s Morning Porridge 16^th May 2024: Sell Persimmon! Bad Corporate Governance, Reputational Damage, and Bad People.

“You would not build a School next to a quarry, so why would you dig a quarry next to a school.”

Hamble Village won the first battle yesterday – Hampshire County Council turned down an application by Persimmon (via Cemex) to dig a destructive quarry right in the heart of our village. It would cause massive health and economic damage while raising flood risk. Persimmon will appeal – so we are preparing for war.

Yesterday was a good day. Thanks to the efforts of a dedicated team of villagers, led by the remarkable Emma Westmacott, my village of Hamble won the first battle in our war against the forces of corporate darkness and greed – UK home builder Persimmon. Hampshire County Council Planning Committee voted unanimously to turn down an application by quarry company Cemex to dig a sand and gravel quarry on land “owned” by Persimmon in the heart of Hamble-le-Rice, a pretty Hampshire village that is the centre of sailing in the UK.

Sadly, it is not the end of our troubles. During the presentations Cemex made clear they would appeal any negative decision. Our local GP, Dr Mark Tomson, told the committee how the stress of the 2 years fearing the implications upon their families, homes and futures of the quarry has dramatically impacted rising mental health and anxiety levels for many residents – the prospect of years more corporate intimidation by Persimmon and Cemex will leave many more residents with corporate-inflicted PTSD.

Persimmon know the harm they are doing. But they are not a reasonable firm. They will do whatever it takes to get their way. As one of the largest contributors to the Conservative Party they believe they are entitled to do so.

The home builder acquired the famous World War 2 airfield, which later became British Airways’s training base, in a complex deal that made clear they would never be able to build homes on it. A country club or golf course, perhaps. Yet ever since, Persimmon, have been trying to weasel around that ruling to build rabbit hutches. In order to protect the site from the firm, it was decided to designate it as a mineral resource about 10-years ago. Big Mistake. Some smart lawyer spotted the flaw in the plan – if Persimmon quarried the site, then it would become a Brownfield post-industrial site, finally giving them a right to build.

Hence the reason Persimmon, a UK homebuilder, via quarry company Cemex, is going into the gravel mining business.

Unusually for the Morning Porridge I am going to make a stock recommendation: If you are an owner of Persimmon Plc, dump the stock.

Persimmon are the definition of rapacious capitalism and should be made an example of. I have bought shares and I intend to be very, very disruptive at shareholder meetings and the AGM to expose Persimmon’s moral bankruptcy, their intention to beggar my whole village to make themselves rich, and willingness to destroy an entire local economy in pursuit of their own goals. I am urging my fellow villagers to do the same – we will buy stock, and take our war to Persimmon. We will shock them. It intends to destroy our village, we will fight back by inflicting such reputational damage on Persimmon even the Tories will dump them.

Persimmon is a classic example of bad corporate governance. One factor everyone commented on was the failure of Cemex or Persimmon to engage with local people or businesses about their plans. What? Talk to the little people… what a quaint notion…

Yet, at the end of yesterday’s planning meeting the chairman made some throwaway comment about “the land belongs to Persimmon, and they can do what they like with it.” That attitude is as old and extinct as the Jurassic coast a few miles to the west. It may have been true when William the Conqueror established the nearby New Forrest as his personal hunting lodge a thousand years ago, but not today. Persimmon may use that land for what we the people consent they may.

No Corporate has a divine right to do whatever they wish. Persimmon believe they do. Which is why you should sell Persimmon. It is a classic case of a firm that exists only to serve its shareholders and enrich its board level (as highlighted by awarding a £75mm bonus to the CEO a few years back for extorting money from Government under the help-to-buy scheme.) Any corporate so unaware of the importance of consent by stakeholders, and good corporate governance should be shown the same door as the Dodo.

The tide is turning. In our battle we were well represented by our Conservative MP, Paul Holmes (proof, it ever needed, that Tories are not all bad), local councillors of all political hues, and by the evidence presented by the independent experts Emma and her team corralled to support our claim. Star of the Hamble show was Oscar Hill, head scholar at the local secondary school who asked: “You would not build a School next to a quarry, so why would you dig a quarry next to a school.”

The Hampshire Council decision was unanimous – not a single person in the room, aside from the 4 beleaguered Cemex Stooges (for that is what they were) supported the application. They stood there, willing to perjure their souls to eternal damnation by mouthing Persimmon’s case.  I sincerely hope none of them sleep well – ever.

In the next few days we will not be surprised if large fences are erected around the Airfield in a pathetic tantrum-driven effort to reinforce Persimmon’s ownership rights, despite the fact the land has been common ground since the airfield was closed in 1984 with multiple permissive rights paths are now established across it. They will seek to provoke a reaction from the locals – hoping we will “damage their property” to show how unreasonable we are. I doubt we’ll disappoint them – this is a war.

Hamble’s objection to the quarry is not NIMBYism (not in my back yard) protesting about new houses that might spoil the views – but based on real damage, the health and wealth impacts on people and the local economy, ecological damage, the flooding it will create, and the lack of suitable infrastructure. All these things were obvious – yet for two years life in the village was left on tenterhooks. That will continue as Persimmon seeks to sap our energy and wallets through every possible appeal stage.

The whole farrago of the Hamble Quarry demonstrates multiple failures of the overly bureaucratic UK planning system. Thousands of hours of unpaid work by villagers to refute the application, and by the appellant’s lawyers in its support should never have been necessary. It should have been immediately apparent the plan was utterly unsuitable and would cause enormous economic hurt and physical damage.

Anyone looking at the details of the case would immediately agree that digging the quarry made absolutely no sense:

• It would push 144 HGV gravel lorries per day down the most congested B road in the UK – the only access to Hamble – causing increased diesel emissions, increased congestion, further endangering life and limb from increased accident risk, while blocking emergency service access for the lifeboat, the fire station, and Hampshire Police’s Gold Command centre.
• By removing the gravel from the site, it would massively increase flooding risk in the village, and lead to environmental degradation in the multiple SSIs on the River Hamble and surrounds. Locals would be unable to get insurance on their homes, and would experience massive falls in value.
• It would negatively impact the heath of locals as the quarry is within 100 meters of nearly 700 homes and 3 schools, creating noise, dust and silicosis risks. Despite the evidence, Cemex said… monsense.. very safe… Liar, liar, pants on fire.. (Our GP, Dr Tomson, brought out the foremost professor in respiratory health to refute Cemex’s porkies.)
• Local businesses would be severely impacted. Coopervision, which manufactures contact lenses, may have to close or relocate 1700 jobs in its’ Hamble factory because of increased congestion and increased air pollution into its “clean-production” facility. The local marine industry employs thousands of people, is the largest concentration of marine leisure businesses in Europe, could be massively impacted and forced to move.
• The local ecology, plants and animals would be adversely affected and effectively wiped out on the site.
• AND… There is absolutely no need for the quarry. Hampshire currently has stocks of gravel and sand for the next 12 years in hand, and capacity to continue with current sites into the 2040s. Building materials are increasingly reclaimed rather than mined. A number of Sand and Gravel quarry sites are currently mothballed. Thousands of tonnes of exactly the same gravel are dredged from the Port of Southampton every day, but dumped at sea – it doesn’t require a degree in washing machines to work out how to use it.

The truth is Cemex aren’t really that fussed about digging a quarry in Hamble. It won’t make them much profit. What they want is whatever Landowner Persimmon Homes has promised them.  What Persimmon wants is to get rich, not matter what the cost to others.

War it is… and we will shock them..

Bill Blain

Author of The Morning Porridge

Wind Shift Capital

www.windshift.capital