KEVIN Cozens, the owner/ manager of Lindfield Day Opportunities, between Copplestone and Morchard Road, had a surprise on Saturday, January 8.

During the day a white van travelling on the A377 crashed through a hedge and ended up in a river.

Kevin explained: “DPD decided to deliver themselves to our farm this morning after nose diving through the hedge into our front field and tumbling over its roof to land in our river. Luckily the driver survived but was badly hurt.”

Emergency services attended including a fire appliance, police and an ambulance.

The man was reported to have required stitches and was injured but recovering.

Kevin explained that DPD said they would be in touch with regard to replacing his destroyed hedge.

Lindfield Day Opportunities is a small working farm covering 20 acres, including small areas of woodland. It has a newly planted orchard, kitchen garden and a whole range of animals.

Local resident Kevin has created a welcoming environment for people with learning disabilities or mental health issues, who come for anything from a few hours a week to five days-a-week.

As it is a working farm with pigs, sheep, cows, goats, donkeys, alpacas and hens there are plenty of jobs for people to get involved with, from routine animal husbandry to animal enrichment.

Kevin explained that the latest project has involved using brush heads as rubbing posts which the goats are particularly enjoying.

The farm also has a workshop where staff work alongside service users on making anything from gates, fences, walkways, animal shelters and feed troughs through to bird houses, bird tables and planters.

The idea behind Lindfield comes straight from Kevin’s own experiences of working in the care environment.

The original Lindfield was sited near Sampford Courtenay, then moved to Lapford and is now on its existing 20 acres where everything had to be built from scratch.

Lindfield has a market stall in the lay-by for farm and workshop produce.

For further details visit: lindfielddo.com or visit the Facebook page: lindfielddo .