Farm dwelling at Immediately adjacent to and South of 129 Blackfort Road Tattyreagh (Omagh)

What was proposed

The application sought outline permission for a new dwelling on a farm beside an existing house on Blackfort Road.

“The purpose of this report is to present for determination an application for planning permission to be decided by the Planning Committee. The application falls within the meaning of a local application as defined in the Planning (Development Management) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015.”

“The proposal is for a new dwelling as a house on a farm business. Whilst there is an active and established farm business and no development opportunities have been sold off, the site for the new dwelling is not visually linked or sited to cluster with an established group of buildings on the farm holding and does not integrate.”

Officer report

Why officers recommended refusal

Officers considered that the site would be prominent, poorly integrated, harmful to rural character and neither visually linked nor suitably clustered with the farm buildings.

“The site is adjacent to a 3 rd party dwelling house and a new dwelling on this site would cause detrimental change to the rural character of an area as it is unduly prominent in the landscape and result in a suburban style build-up of development and would create a ribbon of development. It would also create the potential for further infill development opportunities on the lands to the side.”

Officer report

Consultation responses

NI Water recommended approval subject to conditions, NIEA was content subject to standing advice, and DfI Roads provided advice.

“NI Water has advised that it recommends approval subject to standard planning conditions. (Published on Portal on 23 April 2025). The conditions provided on the response do not meet the tests of planning conditions and NI Water have been notified in writing of this.”

“NIEA responded with advice (published on Portal on 24th March 2025) that they are content with the proposal, subject to conditions set out in their Standing advice. The conditions do not meet the tests of planning conditions but could be added as informatives in the evet of an approval. NIEA has been advised of this.”

Officer report

Residents’ views

No representations were received from neighbours or other members of the public.

“Additional information was submitted by the Applicant following the advertisement and letters of notification. A decision whether an application needs to be readvertised and neighbours re-notified is a matter of discretion for the Council. There were no comments received in response to the initial advertisement and neighbour notifications and the information submitted does not materially alter the proposal or the scale of the development.”

Officer report

Support for the proposal

The agent said the proposal complied with policy, alternative sites had greater practical or visual problems, and the chosen site would integrate without creating ribbon development.

Members’ debate

The Principal Planning Officer explained the policy sequence, while a member considered the site clustered and its location and integration justified approval.

“The Principal Planning Officer stated that in terms of the policy, the chronology of the test was that the proposal must be visually linked or clustered with an established group of buildings on the farm holding. If Members thought there was a justifiable reason not to visually link or cluster, the proposal must then be as close as possible to the existing group and be visually integrated.”

“At this juncture, a Member stated that, in his opinion, the agent’s presentation was reasonable particularly in relation to the assessment of available and alternative sites. The Member considered that the justification for the chosen location was also reasonable, in terms of amenity and integration.”

Minutes

The committee’s decision

The committee approved planning permission by majority against the officer recommendation and delegated powers to attach conditions to planning officers.

“The Principal Planning Officer requested that powers to attach conditions be delegated back to Planning Officers and Members were content with this.”

“RESOLVED: On the proposal of Councillor McCann, seconded by Councillor O’Reilly, and agreed by the majority, that the above application be approved planning permission and that powers to attach conditions be delegated back to Planning Officers. (”

Minutes