Two agricultural buildings at Hatch Pen, The Joint, Reed, Royston

“Erection of two proposed agricultural buildings and retention of extended excavated area…”

“Hatchpen farmyard complex lies on the north side of The Joint, in a position set well back off the lane with an access track leading down to the existing farmyard. The land levels fall to north and east, with the existing farm buildings set on a low point in the landscape with established tree planting screening the buildings in views in the locality. The three buildings and land excavation approved under application 21/01742/FP has been…”

“There is a moderate planning history for the site including a detached farmhouse in 1991, the game keeper’s cottage and associated shoot accommodation in 2008 and in 2020 an application for a dedicated farm office building with car parking. This has not been constructed on site.”

“More specifically to this proposal, planning permission was granted for granted planning permission for the erection of three agricultural buildings under application reference 21/01742/FP. These buildings have been constructed on site and neighbour the location for the proposed buildings the subject of this application.”

“The Local Plan supports this policy aim, with Policy CGB1 which states that in the Rural Area beyond the Green Belt planning permission will be granted if (criteria c) the proposal is strictly necessary for the needs of agriculture and forestry. As set out above these straw barns are needed to support the applicant’s existing straw business to reduce the amount of straw getting ruined by rain and become wastage.”

“Local Plan Policy NE2 requires for new development to respect the sensitivities of the relevant landscape and to not cause unacceptable harm to the character and appearance of the surrounding area or the landscape character area in which the site is located, taking account of any suitable mitigation.”

“Reed Parish Council – no objection but state that they want the visual impact of the proposal in the landscape considered and raise a suggestion that the farm stops HGV movements from the access on The Joint and uses the access to the north onto the A10. This is due to concerns that traffic along The Joint will increase with the new housing to be built in Barkway.”

“The application was advertised with site and press notices. No third party replies have been received at the time of writing this report.”

“If the applicant wished to convert the agricultural buildings into residential dwellings, they would have to wait at least ten years after they were constructed before submitting a suitable application for the Council to consider. • The buildings would be open sided to allow for the use of a forklift to stack hay bales as an enclosed building would not accommodate this.”

“As part of the debate, Councillor Ruth Brown highlighted that there would no visual impact from this application on the surrounding area and therefore, there was no reason to refuse it.”

“Councillor Emma Fernandes proposed to grant permission and this was seconded by Councillor Martin Prescott.”

“RESOLVED: That application 25/01707/FP be GRANTED planning permission subject to the conditions set out in the report of the Development and Conservation Manager.”