Retention of existing barn/stables as a 4 bedroom dwelling

Retention of existing barn/stables as a 4 bedroom dwelling

Please refer to the late material circulated prior to the meeting

Principal Planning Officer, Tony Pope, referred to the planning history of the site and approval of planning permission in 2003 to convert the property into a live-work unit. The planning officer said that, whilst a marketing exercise had been undertaken to sell the property, there had been no interest in the property as a live-work unit.

Public speaking

Speaking in support of the application, the speaker noted the lack of objection from the parish council. The speaker confirmed that the dwelling, a 4-bedroom barn conversion acquired as part of a divorce settlement in February 2004, was separate to the Hanley Farm complex and in sole ownership of the applicant. He said that the property had been granted planning permission to convert into two private dwellings in March 1995, (DF5702/C). Subsequent to this, planning permission had been granted in February 2003, to convert the property into a home-work unit, combining living accommodation with a meat processing plant, (DF5702/E), for which planning permission had been approved for a three-year period. The speaker said that no works had commenced on the conversion and no business rates had been paid. The speaker believed use of the dwelling as a meat processing plant was inappropriate, particularly when disposal of blood, waste and other associated fluids would be in close proximity to a public footpath at the site. He informed the committee that the application for the meat processing plant had been submitted by the applicant’s ex-husband and mother-in-law and not by the current owner. He also informed the committee that the building regulations, completion certificate for the property was for domestic and not live-work use. Referring to the proposed access route off Hanley Lane, the speaker said that the route was an unclassified road, for which planning permission was not required. Furthermore, the road was the only access route to the property and had been in use from 2002, (not for the past couple of years, as had been suggested in the officer’s report). The speaker believed the site was more suitable as a dwelling rather than as a meat-packing and processing plant, especially when considering the problems associated with such use.

Committee Consideration

Local members, Councillors Gabriella Kirkpatrick and Gethyn Davies, spoke in support of the application. Responding to questions, Group Manager for Planning and Housing, Peter Williams, informed Councillor Davies that the permission granted in 1995 had lapsed after five years and that the proposals for change of use in 2003 had included a work element that had not materialised. The Group Manager said that the property had been marketed as a 4-bedroom dwelling and not as a live-work unit. He said that, retention of the property as a dwelling on this basis was un-substantiated and that this was due to the applicant not being able to provide sufficient information to demonstrate that an alternative business use had been sought for the property as a live-work unit. Furthermore, the outcome of the marketing exercise was not considered a reasonable assessment of the current circumstances.

Several members believed the dwelling was divorced from the other properties at the site and that the application should be considered as established use and not as a live-work unit. Councillor Thomson said that the matter appeared to be a technicality and that the applicant was merely trying to legalise the situation. On this basis, Councillor Thomson believed planning permission was appropriate, provided the dwelling was in the ownership of the applicant. Several other members also agreed with this perspective.

Vote

Councillor Norman Stephens proposed that the application be granted planning permission and Councillor Gethyn Davies seconded the proposal. Councillor Stephens said that the reason for his proposal was that he considered the marketing undertaken to be satisifactory and that there was no demonstrable harm from the property remaining as a dwelling. Councillor Stephens proposed that officers suggest appropriate conditions, (including relevant conditions from previous applications), and that permitted development rights be removed. A recorded vote was taken and members,

RESOLVED to authorise planning permission subject to appropriate conditions.

For (15)

Councillors Gethyn Davies, Frankie Evans, Terry Glastonbury, Julia Gooch, Val Holman, Jane Horne, Brian Jones, Gabriella Kirkpatrick, Di Martin, Paul McMahon, Graham Morgan, Norman Stephens, Arthur Thomas, David Thomson and Roger Yeates

Against (0)

Abstentions (0)