A STATE-OF-THE-ART food producer has been given the green light to build "the world’s largest vertical farm" in the Forest of Dean.

Works to build the innovative new facility, which will use robots and cover the equivalent of 70 tennis courts on 17 levels, have reportedly started at the former JD Norman metal foundry site on Tutnalls Street in Lydney.

Food producer the Jones Food Company (JFC) says the multi-million pound ’Garden of England’ development, dubbed JFC2, will help them achieve their aim of supplying 70 per cent of the UK’s fresh produce to supermarkets within the next ten years.

The company, which uses artificial lights to grow food on multiple layers instead of in greenhouses, has been given planning approval to demolish a tower at the site near the A48 Lydney Bypass.

The Lydney farm will be the second facility of its kind from JFC, which was founded in Scunthorpe in 2018.

The farm, which has been backed by online supermarket Ocado, is due to become operational next year.

JFC founder James Lloyd-Jones said the company’s sustainable farming techniques, which use hydroponics and green energy to grow herbs and leafy greens, make sense both environmentally and economically.

"Our food supply chain is under significant stress, with empty supermarket shelves and shortages of foods increasingly commonplace, vertical farming is undoubtedly a vital part of the UK’s and the world’s farming future", he said.

"Given what we’re already doing, the world-leading technology we have and the intensely pressing need for more sustainable forms of farming over coming decades we plan to be able to supply 70 per cent of the UK’s fresh produce within the next ten years.

"From an environmental perspective, vertical farming allows us to grow in 17 layers, so every acre becomes seventeen times more productive.

"It allows us to grow entirely without pesticides and using 95 per cent less water.

"And it means we can significantly reduce the air and road miles of the foods we grow.

"But vertical farming doesn’t just make environmental sense, it makes economic sense too.

"Scale is vital in order to create a cost base that allows us to deliver delicious, healthy herbs, salad leaves, cut flowers, fruit and veg at a price the average shopper also really likes.

"This second facility further cements our ability to do this."

The farm, which will be used to grow mint, parsley, coriander, dill, spinach and mixed salads to begin with, will reportedly cost at least £25 million to develop.

"We fully anticipate more facilities in other parts of the country and around the world in coming years", added Mr Lloyd-Jones.

"Scale is key to sector success and we now know how to ’do big’.

"We believe, through the latest vertical farming technology, the ’Garden of England’ can now grow in Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Yorkshire, Argyll, Fermanagh and pretty much any other county in this country or any other."