Agricultural Conversion - Up for the Challenge!

Navigating the intricacies of the permitted development rights to convert an agricultural barn to residential dwellings can be tricky. Here at Tyler Parkes we take a forensic approach to ensuring that proposals meet the permitted development rights criteria – but even then, there can be subtle differences in interpretation taken by local planning authorities - and this was one such case!

The application sought the conversion of three agricultural barns to five dwellings and met all the complicated criteria of maximum number of units falling within either the large or small dwelling categories, the qualifying agricultural use at specified dates and tenancy conditions, and was free from the specified designated constraints. The application was accompanied by our statement that set out how the proposals were acceptable in the context of the prior approval matters of highways, noise, contamination, flood risk, location and design.

However, the application initially fell foul of the Council’s interpretation of building operations that were ‘reasonably necessary’ to carry out of the conversion to a residential use. Our architectural team took a creative approach to addressing these concerns and designed a scheme that utilised the building without need for ‘unnecessary’ demolitions. Prior approval for the Class Q conversion of all three barns to five dwellings was granted on 16th April 2020.