Consideration of planning permission to retain, restore and inhabit the last two remaining Georgian worker’s cottages on the Island returns to the Isle of Wight council Planning Committee next Tuesday (22nd).
Regular readers will remember VB covered the story of the refusal of the Couthy Butts application extensively last year with videos, podcasts and photo galleries, bringing attention to what could have ended up as wanton destruction of a historic building.
The IW council has thankfully shifted considerably since then. They now agree that the building is of historic value and that it fits within the Area of Outstanding Natual Beauty (AONB).
Initially it was encouraging to see the application back on the Planning Committee agenda, but it’s feared that if the Planning Committee agree to the condition of part-time habitation, owners Brian and Sabrie Harvey may be unable to go ahead with the restoration, leading to the building being lost.
The part-habitation condition
The IW council planning department – the Local Planning Authority (LPA) – are now stating that the shepherds only need to be close to the sheep during lambing season (Jan-May) and have added a condition to the permission as follows.
The occupation of the seasonal unit of shepherd’s accommodation shall be limited to the identified lambing period of 01 January to 31 May of any calendar year and to a person solely or mainly working in connection with the management of the holding. During the non-occupancy periods, the building shall not be used for any purpose other than for the storage of items associated with the agricultural holding.
Having the LPA move from a (we paraphrase) ‘this has to be demolished’ stance to ‘we realise these are historical buildings worth saving’ is extremely encouraging, but if the Harveys are to spend a fortune sympathetically restoring the buildings and making them habitable (for some of the coldest months in the year) then surely they should allowed to have them inhabited throughout the year.
When VB spoke to Brian Harvey this afternoon he said, “The restriction isn’t ideal. It would mean we could only have a part time worker. We’ve got 700 sheep and are sick of working 7 days a week, so want to employ someone full time.”
A reasonable compromise
Surely the compromise should be that the cottages can only be used by workers from the farm? This avoids the situation of the property being rented out as holiday accommodation, which would no doubt raise objection.
Suggesting this to Brain, he said, “We’ve happy for it to have an agricultural tie, so it can only be used for farming purposes.”
Many who know the extensive background to this building feel that the habitation condition attached to the permission is unreasonable and hope the members of the Planning Committee agree – passing the permission without that condition.
We hope to be reporting live from the meeting so check back Tuesday afternoon and you can also read the report in full over on the iwight (PDF) Website.
Brief background
The intended use of the cottages, when complete, would be living accommodation for the shepherds working on the farm, allowing them to be close to the stock throughout the year.
Initial work on making the cottages safe came about back in 2000, when the Harveys were informed by the Health and Safety Executive that they needed to make safe the dilapidated buildings which date back over 200 years.
Local farmers, Brian and Sabrie put a great deal of time and effort into making the buildings safe, so it made sense for them to consider further restoration in order that the cottages could be used as living accommodation for their shepherds.
The application was refused by the LPA – despite no-one from the department actually ever visiting the site – and the Harveys were ordered to demolish the cottages.
The Harveys received a huge amount of support from Islanders keen to see the cottages retained and restored, and carried on with their fight against demolition.
