Disused barns to be converted into four houses

Disused barns at a remote Herefordshire farm are to be converted into four houses.

Mr & Mrs Farr of Merri Fold Farm, Garway Hill near Pontrilas applied for permission to convert the barns under what are known as permitted development rights.

There is no issue of contamination at the site, their application said, while an accompanying structural survey of the barns it shows the existing barns are capable of being converted.

Accompanying plans show three of the converted barns would have four bedrooms, the other, three. All but one, a Dutch barn, would be single-storey. Habitable rooms would all have natural light.

While each house would have parking spaces using existing hard standing, vehicle movements would be mitigated by the end of farm traffic at the site, the application added.

There were no objections from the public, from Kilpeck parish council or from council consultees on traffic and noise.

Planning officer Laura Smith accepted the barns “are of substantial construction and have been demonstrated to facilitate conversion without the need for additional structural support” – though a “high level of intervention” was needed to convert them.

The proposal passed all the requirements for permitted development of farm buildings, she concluded.