Planners working in rural areas will be aware that there is a desperate need for more farm dwellings (in the case where a new farmhouse is proposed) and no demand at all for them (in the case where an application is made to lift an agricultural occupancy condition from an existing farmhouse).
One effective strategy for gaining the removal of an agricultural occupancy condition from a farmhouse seems to be to build it in the wrong place thereby nullifying the condition after four years, as the following successful LDC cases illustrate:
County Distance off approved siting Date DCS Number
Worcestershire 8m 28/7/15 400-008-370
East Yorkshire 24m 13/4/15 400-007-090
Carmarthenshire 6-7m 3/12/14 400-005-890
North Yorkshire 6-7m 7/9/12 100-078-702
Somerset Just overlapping 24/7/12 100-078-270
Cash-strapped planning authorities who are worried that they ought to be doing a bit more by way of monitoring the implementation of planning permissions can now …. worry more.
The following DCP chapter is relevant: 9.413
