Dutch barn conversion refused in Golden Valley

A plan to turn a “Dutch” or curved-roof barn in Herefordshire’s Golden Valley into a three-bedroom house has been rejected.

Lying by a crossroads near the village of Kilpeck, the 250-square-metre barn was already the subject of an unsuccessful conversion bid in 2019.

A new application by a Mr & Mrs Gorringe sought to turn the structure into a single-storey three-bedroom home complete with boot room, pantry and “snug”, under so-called permitted development rights.

This required evidence that what was proposed was a conversion rather than a rebuild.

Planning officer Laura Smith said the only difference between the two schemes was the removal of the proposed first floor from the earlier application, and the addition of external metal sheet cladding since, “with no evidence that these been added for the need of agriculture”.

Even with this, two other sides would still require new external walls, she pointed out.

“As such, I am not satisfied that this amounts to a genuine conversion and consider it more akin to starting afresh,” she concluded.

This could still be accomplished by a full planning application. But such permission is now rarely given for new houses in open countryside.