Agenda item

Cllr A McCloy returned to the meeting. Ms L Slack declared a prejudicial interest and left the meeting during consideration of this item.

The Planning Officer introduced the item and confirmed that although the application was for an agricultural workers dwelling no appraisal had been submitted by the applicant to support the need for the accommodation and it was clear that the applicant only spent 25% of his time working on the farm. Other concerns were the location of the building, design issues and the low level of climate change/energy efficiency measures proposed.

The following spoke under the Public Participation at Meetings Scheme:

·         Rebecca Melland, Applicant – video recording submitted.

Members were concerned regarding the lack of supporting evidence for an agricultural workers dwelling.

The Officer recommendation to refuse the application was moved.

The Planning Officer confirmed that there needed to be a proven need for the agricultural worker to be situated on the farm and that the farm would be able to sustain the development.  This was not proven for this application.

The motion to refuse the application was seconded, put to the vote and carried.

RESOLVED:

That the application be REFUSED for the following reasons:

1.    The proposals fail to demonstrate the essential need for a further agricultural dwelling on the site, contrary to policies HC2 and DMH4.

2.    By virtue of the proposed siting outside of the existing building group, and the propose scale and massing, the development would fail to conserve the appearance of the landscape as required by policies L1 and DMC3.

3.    The development fails to demonstrate how it will achieve the highest possible standards of carbon reductions and water efficiency, contrary to Core Strategy policy CC1.

4.    The detailed design of the dwelling house fails to reflect or compliment the style and building traditions of the locality, contrary to policy DMC3.