ckplanning Client: Coleen Willis PLANNING REPORT & DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT FOR REMOVAL OF RURAL ENTERPRISE WORKER CONDITION ON TY FRENNI, BONCATH, SA37 0JS 1 ckplanning Client: Coleen Willis Application for Planning Permission Town and Country Planning Act 1990 To : Head of Planning Pembrokeshire County Council Application County Hall Site Location Haverfordwest Pembrokeshire SA61 ITP ckplanning is making an application on behalf of Mrs Colleen Willis:- 1. To remove Condition 1 of Planning Consent 10/0350/PA dated 3rd September, 2010 (Rural enterprise worker condition). 2. Site location: Land at Tyfrenni, Boncath, Pembrokeshire, SA37 0JS 3. Type of Planning Permission : Application seeking the removal of a condition following the grant of planning permission 4. Relevant LDP Policies : GN.1, GN.26 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Please find submitted the following :- Requisite application forms and certificates Location Plan to Scale 1:1250 Site Plan to Scale 1:500 Planning Report Design and Access Statement Letter from JJ Morris dated 11th March, 2015 JJ Morris Sales Particulars 2 ckplanning Client: Coleen Willis Personal Letter and Statement from the applicant Planning Fee - £166.00 1.2 This report is prepared in accordance with the requirements of Policies contained within the Pembrokeshire County Council Local Development Plan. 2.0 BACKGROUND & SITE LOCATION 2.1 The application site comprises a two storey dwelling set back within a plot, having an elevated position from the minor highway which leads from Boncath to Crymych. There is an agricultural outbuilding and stable block located to the west. The site boundary with the public highway is demarcated by mature trees and hedgebanks with an access point located in the northern corner of the site. 3.0 SERVICES 3.1 Water reticulation, sewer disposal connection, electricity and telephone lines are readily available. Surface water and building run-off is disposed of by way of on-site soakaways. 4.0 PAST HISTORY 4.1 By consent D2/94/018 dated 8th March 1994 outline planning permission was granted for one dwelling on Part O.S. 0060, Boncath Road, Boncath. Under consent D2/94/403 reserved matters for the dwelling were approved. By consent 10/0350/PA dated 3rd September 2010 condition 3, an agricultural occupancy condition on consent D2/94/018, was removed and replaced with the rural enterprise workers condition as advised by TAN 6. 4.2 There appears to have been some confusion in the wording of Refusal Notice 13/0610/PA wherein the particulars of development are stated as – Removal of agricultural occupancy condition No 2 from D2/94/18 4.3 However, the delegated decision report on 13/0610/PA assessed the application as seeking the removal of a rural enterprise worker condition and throughout the report consistently refers to assessing the removal of the aforementioned condition. This 3 ckplanning Client: Coleen Willis application therefore seeks the removal of Condition 1 of 10/0350/PA as that is deemed to be the extant consent. 4.4 A previous application under LPA Ref: 14/0143/PA seeking removal of the said consent was lodged on 17th June 2014. An appeal against non-determination of this application was lodged on 10th September 2014. Following an exchange of Statutory Appeal Statements the appeal was withdrawn on 8th December, 2014, subject to a further application being made with the property being specifically marketed directly to the affordable housing market sector. 4.5 It has been agreed with the LPA that previous marketing of the property has established that there is no demand for the property as a rural enterprise workers dwelling – Ref: LPA Appeal Statement of Case 16th October 2014, para 4.6. 4.6 The main consideration therefore in this application is to establish the level of demand for the property as affordable housing. Following written advice from the LPA, marketing of the property was re-launched on the 9th December, 2014 for a PERIOD OF 12 WEEKS. Those 12 weeks expired on 11th March 2105 and to-date no-one has come forward as an interested purchaser that qualifies to meet part b) of consent condition 10/0350/PA. 4.7 The re-launch sales particulars were prepared following detailed input by the LPA, and their final agreement to those particulars was sought and confirmed prior to the release of the new particulars. A copy of the said particulars are submitted in support of this application. 4.8 The JJ Morris letter dated 11th March 2015 details the level of interest in the property as an affordable dwelling and confirms that the limitations of the planning condition either extinguished or deterred interest. My own name (ckplanning ltd – Chris Kimpton BA(HONS) MRTPI) was included within the Sales Particulars as a point of contact regarding compliance with the condition. I spoke to several interested parties and in each case found that once the limitations of the condition had been fully explained, the individual’s interest in the property ceased. In all cases I advised that the interested party also contact the LPA to fully ascertain if they met Council’s affordable housing criteria. The feedback I received was that interested 4 ckplanning Client: Coleen Willis parties were willing to wait to see the outcome of this application and would be far more interested in an unencumbered dwelling. I got the impression from at least two parties that they were only interested in a ‘cheap bargain’ as the property has clearly been under-valued to reflect the restrictive occupancy condition. 4.9 By telephone conversation 06/03/2015 at 09.30a.m. Planning Obligations Monitoring Officer, Eirian Forest, confirmed that she had not sent out any forms to people wishing to check their eligibility to satisfy the affordable housing criteria under Condition 1, Pt b) of 10/0350/PA. This further reinforces the lack of interest in the property as an affordable dwelling. 4.10 The property has been marketed at 70% of its open market value, at a figure of between £210,000.00 and £230,000.00 as confirmed by Phillip Williams of PCC Estates Department. At that price range some interest was generated, but came to nothing once the affordable housing occupancy qualifying criteria were fully explained by myself and PCC Planning staff to any interested party. 5.0 CURRENT PLANNING POLICY 5.1 The site falls within the administrative area of Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC). The County Council adopted the PCC Local Development Plan on 28th February 2013. There appears to be no relevant LDP policy to this application. 5.2 Rural Enterprise Dwellings - Technical Advice Note 6 Planning for Sustainable Rural Communities December 2011 The above guidance identifies that there is a requirement to demonstrate that there is no longer a rural enterprise requirement for the subject dwelling or an affordable housing need in the area, usually through market testing – please refer to extract paragraphs 8.25, 8.26, 8.27 and 8.28 below. 8.25 The main issue that has arisen in the past with occupancy conditions has related to attempts by owners of restricted properties to remove the condition on the basis that they no longer perform their purpose due to the absence of continuing need. With the widening of the range of qualifying rural enterprise occupants and the addition of the local affordable housing requirement, the scope for the removal of the new occupancy condition is very much reduced. 8.26 In the event that a proposal to remove the new occupancy condition, as attached to a new dwelling or pre-existing property, comes forward, there will be a need to demonstrate, with supporting 5 ckplanning Client: Coleen Willis evidence, that there is no longer a rural enterprise need for the dwelling or a local affordable housing need in the area. The longstanding mechanism for demonstrating the absence of need has been market testing. 8.27 Evidence of effective market testing will be required over a reasonable period, usually at least 12 months. The critical aspects of market testing are that: the availability of a property is advertised in such a manner that compliant purchasers or tenants are likely to be made aware of it; and the price or rent attached to a property reflects the restrictive occupancy requirement. 8.28 The value of any property subject to an occupancy restriction will be less than its value on the open market. Traditionally agricultural dwellings have been marketed at prices generally between 70 and 75% of their open market value. With the wider range of compliant rural enterprise workers and local affordability constraints, this will continue to be the case. The valuation of properties will require professional advice and, in the case of affordability criteria, assistance from the local authority. 5.3 This application is supported by a letter from JJ Morris, Estate Agents attesting to its recent marketing as an affordable housing needs dwelling; the Estate Agent confirms that ‘the limitations of the planning conditions have either extinguished or deterred interest.’ 5.4 Council’s own Property and Asset Management section have confirmed that a valuation of between £200,000.00 and £230,000.00 would be reasonable and acceptable for this large property. As such Council have already accepted that the marketing exercise price for the property to the point of assessing the 2013 application (13/0610/PA) was reasonable with regard to the rural enterprise worker restriction (paragraph 8.7 of delegated report 13/0610/PA). 5.5 There is no demand for a property of this size as an affordable housing unit – it is a large 5 bedroom detached dwelling with 10 acres and outbuildings. The current Housing Needs Report for Boncath Community Council area and surrounding CC areas of Clydau and Manordeifi show- No of bedrooms Households In Households In housing need interested housing need in Low Cost Home Ownership 1 16 0 2 11 6 3 6 3 4 0 0 5 0 0 6 ckplanning Client: Coleen Willis Therefore, there is no demand for a property of this size as an affordable house in the immediate and surrounding Community Council areas.