Bloxhams Barn is a two storey stone building with a single storey brick, three bay, open fronted cart hovel. The building is in open countryside, surrounded by open arable land. Although no longer in use, the building has been well maintained to be wind and watertight and generally the building appears to be in good condition.
The owners of Bloxhams Barn had always hoped that they would be able to obtain planning permission for conversion to a residential dwelling, but three previous applications had failed (including at appeal), on the grounds of its open countryside, prominent location. However, when the Government revised the General Permitted Development Order (GPDO) to include the conversion of agricultural buildings to residential use, a perfect opportunity was presented to make a further application.
The design of the conversion submitted in the GPDO application hardly differed from that of the most recently refused application and local policy has not changed since that refusal in 2008. However, as a Permitted Development application is based on nationally set procedure, rather than local policy, this did not matter. Permitted Development is more of a case of making sure that the proposal complies with the rules set out in the order; if this is the case, the Local Authority is required to confirm that they do not require any further details of the works to be carried out, and therefore grant you their ‘prior approval’.
Although this sounds a relatively straightforward process, there are many potential pitfalls along the way. For example, the rules clearly state that the proposed development cannot result in the external dimensions of the building extending beyond the external dimensions of the existing building at any given point. In this case, the cart hovel and two storey building are not joined to each other. An obvious solution would be a small link extension. However, as this would result in an immediate ‘fail’, the two buildings were kept as two distinct units.
Unlike full planning applications, a Permitted Development application does not require the same level of additional detail such as environmental surveys, heritage statements and structural surveys (although some local authorities are requesting this information). The application contained:
- A Planning, Design and Access Statement
- Existing and Proposed Elevations and Floorplans
- An Application Form
- Application fee of &172
The application has a strict 56 day period in which the local authority must make their determination; a failure to respond within that time can be deemed to be acceptance on their part. Having submitted the application for conversion of Bloxham’s Barn, South Northamptonshire Council made very little comment on the application, save for the request to change the design of one window.
The application was approved without further question, thereby granting approval for the conversion of a building, which was initially applied for nearly 30 years ago. This shows that although the principle of the application had changed very little in that time, National planning policy has only now caught up with the idea of the proposal.
For further information contact Amy Hutsby on 01295 271555 or email here