Farm holiday lets “homes for 15 years”

A Herefordshire couple claim that three former barns that were converted into holiday lets have in fact been let out as homes since the Noughties.

Mr and Mrs N V Smith of New House Farm, on the Herefordshire-Gloucestershire border between Gorsley and Longhope, have applied (number 242497) for a certificate of lawfulness confirming no enforcement action can now be taken over the properties.

A planning breach cannot be enforced if it can be shown to have continued for more than 10 years.

The couple’s application says that two of the properties, Pine Cottage and Oak Cottage, were originally converted in 1990. Pine Cottage has had residential occupants from 2008 to the present day, Oak Cottage 2003 until the present.

The third, knows as The Byre, was completed in 2008 and has been let as a home since 2009, their application says.

This claim is backed up by separate sworn statements from the applicants and by Mrs Smith’s son.

The application also seeks to remove a restriction on selling the properties separately, claiming there is “no logical reason” to prevent this as they are accessed by separate tracks from the main farmhouse, now apparently a bed-and-breakfast business.

When another neighbouring barn was approved for conversion to residential use in 2015, no conditions were imposed to restrict either the occupancy or subsequent sale, it adds.

Comments on the application for a certificate of lawfulness can be made until December 5.