FARMERS IN KENT DISLIKE PINK COWSHEDS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 61, 7 March 1949, Page 4

FARMERS IN KENT DISLIKE PINK COWSHEDS

There is quite a how-do-you-do / going on over pink cowsheds in ( the English county of Kent. A question is down for hearing in the House of Commons: “Why is the Ashford department of the Ministry of Town and Country Planning advising farmers erecting cowsheds to paint them pink?” Meanwhile, the question is so novel and intriguing that it has set a number of reporters busy trying to get the back of it. It seems that Miss Jessica Albery, who has venturesome artistic ideas, is a member'' of the Kent county planning department as landscape adviser. Some Kent farmers, in conjunction with the Local Conservative Party organisation, are protesting ■ that it is Miss Albery who is trying to make Kentish farmers paint their cowsheds pink. The critics claim she is confusing and upsetting the >' farmers. But Miss Albery, granddaughter of playwright Henry Arthur Jones, denies the allegations. . She thinks there has been some mixup over some advice she admitted giving to a hop farmer about a colour scheme for some temporary huts. She cannot remember whether she advised pink. But in any case, she thinks pink cowsheds a very good idea. She likes pink because, she says, “it would fit in with the many types •of landscape most attractively.” Another official of the planning department is reported to have said at Maidstone: “The only time we would express any strong views on colours would be if a farmer tried to put dazzle-striped paint on a shed.” \ . , . J. : - As in all matters affecting cows, we have referred the question back to our own domestic Jersey cow Daybreak, states a correspondent. What are Daybreak’s views on pink cowsheds. We feel that she quite frankly doesn’t care a turnip what particular pastel shade her house is painted. She likes it clean and bright and , airy, but whether it is pink or lemon or cinnamon or beige is more a matter for farmers or country planners or local authorities or governments. <