Erection of four bed detached dwelling for farm manager.

The application was approved contrary to the case officer’s recommendation, with conditions.

The Senior Planning Officer gave a presentation on the application.  She referred to additional representations set out in the schedule of committee updates, as appended to these minutes.  She noted that an informative needed to be added to the recommendation stating that the Authority had acted positively and proactively in determining the application.

In accordance with the criteria for public speaking, Mrs Goodwin, the applicant, spoke in support of the application.

In accordance with paragraph 4.8.2.2 of the Council’s Constitution Councillor P Sinclair-Knipe, the local ward member, spoke on the application.  He commented on a number of issues including:

·         There were 24 letters in support of the application, which also had the Parish Council’s support.

·         The farm needed to relocate due to encroachment from development in Hereford and the proposed farmhouse was necessary to carry out farming and ensure security.  The Council should support agriculture, families and enterprise.

·         The design and location of the property was acceptable.

The debate opened and the following principal points were made:

·         The proposed relocation of the farming operation was sound and a farmhouse was needed on site to manage it and ensure security.  It was suggested that policies S1, DR1 and DR2 provided grounds for supporting the development.  A departure from H7 was justified in the circumstances.

·         It was inappropriate for a young family to have to live in temporary accommodation until agricultural buildings were on site.

·         There were insufficient policy grounds for granting planning permission.

·         It was requested that consideration be given to the opportunity for Members to be more involved in the development of planning policy, to ensure that policies enabled Members’ objectives, such as support for farmers, to be delivered transparently and equitably and that applications granted contrary to policy would then be extremely rare.

·         It was proposed that conditions should be attached to the application relating to the need for a comprehensive site plan, landscaping and ecology.

·         The size and orientation of the property was questioned.

·         There was no current farming settlement to justify the need.

·         One of the objections made in representations at paragraph 5.3 of the report was that there were other properties for sale locally that could be used.  The Principal Planning Officer commented that two properties had been discounted by the applicant because of cost and the view that they were not in close enough proximity to the farm.

·         The County Land Agent had commented in his revised comments, set out in the report, that it would be against policy to grant an agriculturally tied dwelling on the grounds of security alone.

·         The Head of Neighbourhood Planning commented that policies in the draft core strategy did permit housing in the countryside outside settlements and support agricultural businesses where this was justified. He noted that there was an existing permission for farm buildings but nothing had as yet been built.   He questioned what guarantee the Committee had, if it granted permission, that the farm buildings would be built.  The policy stated that until a business had been established permission should only be granted for temporary accommodation.  He also considered the proposed house was much larger than was required to meet the functional need being asserted.  He suggested that if the Committee was minded to grant permission this should be conditional on the farm buildings being built first and agricultural occupancy.

·         The Development Manager added that policies H8 and H13 supported dwellings in the countryside in appropriate circumstances.  The application before the Committee was for an oversized dwelling and was incomplete.

The local ward member was given the opportunity to close the debate.  He reiterated support for the application and requested that the application be approved.

A motion that the application should be approved with conditions relating to the site plan, landscaping, agricultural occupancy, agricultural buildings to be built first, ecology and orientation of the dwelling was carried. 

RESOLVED:

That planning permission be granted subject to conditions relating to the site plan, landscaping, agricultural occupancy, agricultural buildings to be built first, ecology and orientation of the dwelling and any conditions deemed necessary by officers named in the scheme of delegation to officers.

(The meeting adjourned between 10.55 and 11.05.)