A PROPOSED Ceredigion agricultural dwelling must be made smaller or it would be refused rather than be decided by Welsh Government, county planners told the applicants yesterday, November 13.
In an application recommended for refusal at the November meeting of Ceredigion County Council’s development management committee, Hefin Evans, of Neuadd Fawr, Talybont sought permission for an agricultural dwelling on the site of the farm.
Reasons included it failed a financial test required by policy and its size “would not serve a useful purpose as an affordable dwelling should the need to house an agricultural worker cease”.
Committee members heard the 222sq m dwelling would cost some £321,000 to construct, with estimated mortgage repayments of £1,877 a month or £22,524 a year.
An accompanying report said: “Based on the national living wage of £11.44 per hour and a 40 hour week a fair market return for 1.5 full time workers is considered to cost the business £35,692.80. Having regard to the financial test it is not considered that the enterprise concerned is capable of funding 1.5 full time workers paid the national living wage and funding the construction of a new dwelling of this size.”
Issues were also raised about the size of the proposed dwelling, with a maximum floorspace for affordable developments guidance of 136m sq, subject to some leeway for farm offices and associated facilities, the 222sq m proposal considered “excessive”.
“The applicants have been invited to consider amending the scheme to show a dwelling of between 150sqm and 160 sqm however this invitation has been declined. As such it is not considered that the proposed dwelling would serve a useful purpose as an affordable dwelling should the need to house an agricultural worker cease.”
Cllr Gareth Lloyd said he supported the “good in principle” proposal but referenced a similar application for a four-bedroom 202sq m rural enterprise workers’ dwelling at Blaenffynnon approved by members the previous month which may now be decided by Welsh Government: “The only piece of disagreement is the size of the house. Cardiff have called in an application which we approved last month for a smaller scheme. The committee supported the application, and we had ‘cooling-off’ just to hear that Cardiff have called it in.”
He asked that the proposal be deferred to the council’s ‘cooling-off’ committee for further discussions on the size of the scheme, which was backed by Cllr Rhodri Evans, who said: “If the size was smaller the authority would be happy with the application.”
Head of planning for Ceredigion Russell Hughes-Pickering told members: “What this comes down to is the size of the property, as it stands at the moment it’s a significant departure with a high risk of ‘call-in’.”
He added: “Last month we pushed back on the 200 [square metres] due to special circumstances, it was recognised it was an exception, and then we’ve seen it’s been ‘called in,’ let’s defer to the ‘cooling off’. My plea to the applicant is they seriously consider reducing the size of the property, because if it doesn’t change my view is we’d have no choice but to refuse it and the applicant would have a right to appeal but, if it was at 220 metres it’s likely to be called by Welsh Government.”
Members unanimously agreed for further discussions with the applicant under ‘cooling off,’ the application returning to a future meeting.
