Brookend Farm House, Stevenage Road, St Ippolyts, Hitchin, Herts SG4 7NU

Application No. 20/00569/FP

Erection of stables and storage building and provision of access road and hard standing at Brookend Farm House, Stevenage Road, St Ippolyts, Hitchin, Hertfordshire SG4 7NU.

CPRE Hertfordshire has concerns regarding this proposal for development in the Green Belt.

The Planning Support Statement accompanying the application provides a series of reasons why the applicant wishes to use the land for grazing and to erect support facilities on it, but does not actually address the planning issues which arise.

The documentation contains ambiguities. The Application heading says that it is for ‘stables and storage building’ but the Planning Support Statement and the Covering Letter refer solely to a ‘proposed storage barn’. This requires to be clarified.

If it is intended that the field is to be grazed by livestock, as the Planning Support Statement says, and that the storage barn is to support that use, then the development can be classed as agricultural and, as such, is not an inappropriate use under National Planning Policy Framework 145(a). As the site is below 5 hectares, permitted development rights do not apply.