Bid to replace barns with houses approved
A plan to replace farm buildings with five “traditional” houses has been approved, a year and a half after it was put forward.
Downton Estates wanted to build the homes, consisting of one two-bedroom house, two with three bedrooms and two with four, on a two-acre site at Nacklestone Farm, near Leintwardine.
So called prior approval, avoiding the need for a full planning application, had been granted to convert the redundant post-war sheds to housing in December 2020.
But a subsequent bid for full permission to knock them down and create five new homes was refused in May 2022 as having an “urbanising” effect.
The new scheme, to be built by local firm Border Oak and revised during the planning consultation, was more in the form of a traditional farmyard, at the suggestion of council officers.
There were no objections to this from official consultees or from Leintwardine Parish Council.
But neighbour Paul Oatley objected that the proposal would still “domesticate and urbanise” the rural setting, would overlook his house, and would “ruin the peace and quiet of the area”.
Planning officer Andrew Banks said the plan would reduce “considerably” the hard, impermeable surfaces on the farm site, while storm water run-off would be channelled into underground “attenuation crates” before being discharged.
This would not harm any nearby watercourses or nature sites, he concluded.
And with development of the site already established in principle, there were no highway safety concerns, while an unclassified road provided “an amenity buffer” with neighbouring properties.
