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Written Statement in support of Planning Application to contract new livestock building and widen existing driveway entrance at Cammall Farm Kirk Michael
The proposal to construct a barn was first considered under PA 06/450. A written statement in support of that application was submitted at Appeal stage as a response to the objections raised.
With regard to the requirement for the building the Inspector concludes at paragraph 21 that he was “satisfied that the building was justifiable in agricultural terms.” In respect of the proposal to locate the building in the proposed location at the lower end of the site the Inspector concluded at paragraph 23 that he was satisfied that “the development would not have an unacceptable visual impact on either of the neighbouring properties”.
In respect of the widening of the access gates, whilst in paragraph 26 the Inspector was “of the opinion the potential benefits for safety are of such an order that the loss of one tee as regards the appearance and character of the area of high landscape value is acceptable” in paragraph 27 he concluded that there would be a legal obstacle to granting approval for works outside the application site.
However in paragraph 24 and 25 he supported concerns regarding protection of the watercourse and the potential for worse surcharging and summarised his recommendation that the application be refused with the reasons confined to the issues of pollution and flooding.
This statement therefore sets out how the application has been changed to address both of these issues, and to tidy up the proposals in respect of the widening of the driveway.
Whilst on the same latitude as previously applied for, the barn has been set 15m further back into the field. This will ensure that the barn is sited significantly more than the 8m from the water course as required by EP8 and EP27.
Surface water from the roof will be collected in recycling tanks and distributed internally for animal welfare purposes.
The farm yard which is for traversing rather than being accessible to free-roaming animals will have a water-permeable finish i.e. blinded hardcore.
There will therefore be no pollution or additional water put into the adjacent watercourse
With regard to the new roadway crossing over the water course, a culvert will be created at the crossing point in strict accordance with the Land Drainage Engineer's requirements. The appropriate way leaves will be developed and signed in parallel to this application being processed.
Whilst the proposal to construct the barn will add no further discharge to the watercourse, flooding has occurred in the past due to blockages on the water course further upstream of the development area leading to the watercourse discharging down the steep driveway and ultimately onto the main road. As previously discussed with the Land Drainage Engineer and as a safe-guard a cattle grid has been introduced which has an overflow pipe to discharge any water coming down the drive back into the water course.
Up to 25 animal collection vehicles currently visit the site twice a year at lambing periods. There will be no significant increase to those numbers of as a result of the barn. However as explained to the previous Planning Inspector, the road up to the current farm yard is hazardous to those vehicles, and constructing the barn at this more accessible location will greatly improve this situation.
Whilst setting the building back into the field safeguards the water course it also has the benefit of providing manoeuvrability space for vehicles so that they exit the site in a forward direction.
Whilst the preferred 295m visibility splays are not mandatory if there is no increase in traffic movement, the tree survey recently carried out and superimposed on the ordnance survey map suggests that a 2x 295m is still likely to be achievable by the loss of one tree only, which is the tree loss inevitable to achieve the 2.0m widening of the gateway which is desperately needed to create safe access and egress to the farm as a whole.
Objections from neighbours to the principal of this development were considered in detail by the previous Independent Planning Inspector who concluded that the requirement for the barn is justified, the location is suitable, and the widening of the gateway would effect a major improvement in highway safety.
The farming practices being adopted are in line with normal farming practice, and the issues surrounding pollution and flooding have been fully addressed in this revised proposal.
We therefore urge the application to be approved as expeditiously as possible to enable health and safety issue and animal welfare issue to be implemented as soon as practicable.
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