Plans to turn barns into three homes

Plans have been put forward to turn barns on a Herefordshire borderlands farm into three houses.

The planning application (numbered 233707) by Joss Lucas-Scudamore of Kentchurch Court Estate seeks permission to convert the buildings at Little Pen-y-Lan Farm above Pontrilas into two three-bedroom and one four-bedroom houses for market sale.

Arranged around a historic courtyard, the barns “are in various states of repair” but have been assessed by an architect as capable of being converted, the estate’s application says.

The “maximum amount” of the barns’ original fabric would be repaired and retained, and combined with extensive new glazing, while a more modern steel barn occupying the middle of the courtyard would be removed.

Permission was given last May to convert a neighbouring steel-framed Dutch barn into two houses, the application explains, adding: “Given this, it is considered sensible that the whole of the site should be used as residential complex.”

This forms part of wider moves to bring old and underused buildings on the 5,000-acre estate back into use, it says.

“This will enable the estate to continue to have a viable future, as well as performing an important social function within the local area.”

Comments on the application can be made until January 30.