Appeal over farm units near Evesham

A number of units could still be built on a farm near Evesham despite the council rejecting the plan.

The proposals to build four units at Castle Fields Farm off Harvington Lane in Norton near Evesham were rejected by Wychavon District Council’s planning officers in December last year.

An appeal has now been launched with the government’s planning inspectorate which, if backed, would mean the council would be overruled and the work can go ahead.

Each unit has three bedrooms and is one-and-a-half to two-storeys in height.

Floor plans show space for a conference room, kitchenette, office and studio space, reception and waiting areas and filing and stock rooms.

Council planners said the application could not be supported as it would be built on open countryside and was outside any of the council’s development boundaries.

Officers also said they could not see what the benefits of building the units would be and the design, number and layout of the “clustered” units away from the main farm did not “complement the area’s rural character” and were inappropriate.

A report outlining the council’s rejection said: “In this case, no end-users have been identified for the units. In these circumstances, the economic benefits of the proposal are unclear. As such, there is a degree of uncertainty over the benefits of the scheme.

“There is no real justification for the amount of development proposed in this predominately rural area where residential development would normally be resisted, other than it is located adjacent to existing buildings, and this counts against the scheme.

“There are no other circumstances, such as a lack of a five-year housing land supply, that would provide support for the scheme and these circumstances mean that permission should be refused.

“Whilst acknowledging that the proposal is for live/work units, such a conclusion is in line with a previous consent to refuse open market housing on the site.”

A plan to demolish a number of units and build seven homes on the land was rejected by planners at Wychavon District Council in 2018 for similar reasons including building on open countryside and was outside the development boundary for the area.