Agricultural Workers Dwelling

[Marie]

Staffordshire Moorlands’s District Council
I need to appeal against the planning refusal for an Agricultural Worker Dwelling. I farm 70 acres, roughly half of which is rented.
I have applied for and been granted permission for several farm building, without any problem.
I had a 3 year temporary permission for a mobile home.
My application for a permanent dwelling was refused in August.
I am in need of advice on how to go forward.
I am in need of a competent planning appeals person.
Can anyone help or suggest how to go forward

 

[Bossfarmer]

Staffordshire Moorlands’s District Council
I need to appeal against the planning refusal for an Agricultural Worker Dwelling. I farm 70 acres, roughly half of which is rented.
I have applied for and been granted permission for several farm building, without any problem.
I had a 3 year temporary permission for a mobile home.
My application for a permanent dwelling was refused in August.
I am in need of advice on how to go forward.
I am in need of a competent planning appeals person.
Can anyone help or suggest how to go forward

sounds tricky have you had a labour justification report done? is there valid reasons why you need to be there on site? livestock of decent number etc?

 

[neilo]

@George from SJM Planning

 

[Bury the Trash]

sounds tricky have you had a labour justification report done? is there valid reasons why you need to be there on site? livestock of decent number etc?

funny that isnt it, thousands of houses going up everywhere on green field sites with millions of people going to live in them most likely with absolutely no knowledge or interest in or of the land farming or countryside and will not have work in the locality , just commute and bung up and wear out the roads even more ...yet someone with an agricultural interest /land mange ment interest has to jump through hoops and qualify in some possibly intensive way

 

[serf]

funny that isnt it, thousands of houses going up everywhere on green field sites with millions of people going to live in them most likely with absolutely no knowledge or interest in or of the land farming or countryside and will not have work in the locality , just commute and bung up and wear out the roads even more ...yet someone with an agricultural interest /land mange ment interest has to jump through hoops and qualify in some possibly intensive way

Yep , it's a complete mockery !
Brown envelopes

 

[bobk]

We are Staffs BC , they are arseholes , Moorland are a different league

 

[George from SJM Planning]

I would be happy to look at your application if you want to drop me an email [email protected].
As you had a temporary permission they must have accepted you have a need to be there but not enough confidence for a bricks and mortar dwelling.
In this circumstances it is usually the business plan of supporting information that is lacking or the size of dwelling is excessive.

 

[Jimmy the bull]

If I remember rightly There are 3 parts
- justifying being there . You need to demonstrate that you have sufficient livestock to need 1 full time person , I’m sure I used John nix pocket handbook . We had to increase the suckler heard from 40 to 90 cattle
- Then justify that someone needs to be on site 24/7 for significant periods of the year. Ie more than a number of weeks. Security is not a justification, so lambing calving etc . Telling them that you lamb all ewes in 2 weeks and turn them out is a no no. Drawn out batch lambing / calving on “welfare” grounds and need to be able to adjust feed throughout the day and night for young stock worked for me.
- then you need to demonstrate that the farming business can support the cost of the house build . With us we weren’t allowed to include any secondary income even from contracting. It had to be the business enterprise relevant to the need for a dwelling. Also don’t go asking for a 6 bed 700k house if the enterprise turns over 100k with a 30k net profit. The house has to be proportionate to the size of the business.
If you have done all this thoroughly already, then a good planning consultant to throw a few planning policies at them always helps. It took us 4 attempts over 6 years, and the biggest mistake we made was when we first started we made it too personal and emotive rather than factual and meeting the planning policy framework. Good luck.

 

[Worsall]

Our local planning department advised they were going to refuse permission for a farm workers dwelling due to "The house has to be proportionate to the size of the business, and was too big for a pig farmer"
We said they were discriminating against a type of business, they then changed their stance at the last minute and approved the application.

 

[George from SJM Planning]

If I remember rightly There are 3 parts
- justifying being there . You need to demonstrate that you have sufficient livestock to need 1 full time person , I’m sure I used John nix pocket handbook . We had to increase the suckler heard from 40 to 90 cattle
- Then justify that someone needs to be on site 24/7 for significant periods of the year. Ie more than a number of weeks. Security is not a justification, so lambing calving etc . Telling them that you lamb all ewes in 2 weeks and turn them out is a no no. Drawn out batch lambing / calving on “welfare” grounds and need to be able to adjust feed throughout the day and night for young stock worked for me.
- then you need to demonstrate that the farming business can support the cost of the house build . With us we weren’t allowed to include any secondary income even from contracting. It had to be the business enterprise relevant to the need for a dwelling. Also don’t go asking for a 6 bed 700k house if the enterprise turns over 100k with a 30k net profit. The house has to be proportionate to the size of the business.
If you have done all this thoroughly already, then a good planning consultant to throw a few planning policies at them always helps. It took us 4 attempts over 6 years, and the biggest mistake we made was when we first started we made it too personal and emotive rather than factual and meeting the planning policy framework. Good luck.

I honestly couldn't have put it better myself.

 

[bluebell]

Right, what i had to do, id imagine its the same in your case is this, proof to the council two important points, one the need and two the viability of the enterprise your doing that then needs you to live on site ? Not so easy then? My case i used and paid for an agricultural consultant to do all of the above showing the history, investment, animals numbers, and income etc, then because the council in their opinion wernt qualified to make a judgement on that evidence, they commisioned an independent agricultural consultant to look at my holding, the evidence etc then right a report either supporting a dwelling or not, we actaully asked for and were granted a public council meeting at the councils open to the public meeting and attended with my consultant and vet who asked to be able to talk in front of the councils planning commitee when our application was herd, this was approx 10pm and there was another one to be heard after ours, after a quick discussion on my planning application and hearing my vets case for the need a vote was made and our application was granted with all the council commitee voting in favour of it,