New planning guidelines welcomed for rural areas

By
Tom Geraghty
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New planning guidelines welcomed for rural areas
Farmers and landowners throughout the country will be more able to facilitate economic growth in rural areas following the latest planning policy guidelines introduced by the Government.
Farmers and landowners throughout the country will be more able to facilitate economic growth in rural areas following the latest planning policy guidelines introduced by the Government.

The new policy statement PPS4 called “Planning for Sustainable Economic Growth“ essentially encourages local planning authorities to adopt a positive and constructive approach to planning applications for economic development.

According to planning expert Peter Fenwick, who has just joined Berrys’ planning team in Shrewsbury, local councils should support the conversion or re-use of appropriately located and suitably constructed existing buildings in the countryside for economic development purposes.

“This planning policy guidance recognises that economic development takes place in rural areas as it does in urban areas,” said Peter, the former head of development control at Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council.

“In the past farmers have been encouraged by governments and grants to diversify and set up new income streams yet progress has been hampered by a planning system that was slow to adapt to a changing rural economy.”

The new policy sets out to support the sustainable conversion and re-use of buildings for sustainable economic development, to set out permissible scale for replacement buildings and  to set out the criteria to be applied to planning applications for farm diversification and to support sustainable diversification for business purposes. Where appropriate equine enterprises should also be supported.

“Re-use of buildings in the countryside for economic development purposes will usually be preferable, but the guidance also states that ‘residential conversions may be more appropriate in some locations and for some types of building’,” he explained.

The policy statement also supports sustainable rural tourism and leisure developments and will, in some cases, support new tourism-related buildings in the countryside as long as they are in keeping and no other existing buildings are available for re-use.

Berrys offers a complete  planning service so farmers and landowners in the West Midlands thinking of developing or diversifying should contact Peter Fenwick or lead planning consultant Stephen Locke at Berrys on 01743 271697 or email stephen.locke@berrybros.com.

If you require planning assistance in the East Midlands you should contact Paul Johnson at the Kettering office on 01536 532387 or emailpaul.johnson@berrybros.com