A NEW outbuilding, pool house and swimming pool has been given permission to be built on the site of a former farm near a Hampshire village.
Andrew Millington's planning application, at Tytheland Farm, Woodlands, near Bramdean, was permitted by the South Downs National Park with officers using delegated powers.
The site, which Mr Millington bought in 2021, was previously occupied by a battery hen farm known as Wolfhanger Farm, which closed in 2010. Mr Millington said he hopes to turn the site into a family home.
Six objections were submitted citing various reasons such as the possibility of contaminated land, overlooking, loss of light, the conversion of the site into residential use and the use of a bridleway as its access. One objection was withdrawn.
The Friends of the South Downs, a group with more than 1,500 members that works to conserve the landscape of the South Downs National Park, raised concerns about the outbuilding and its potential for further residential use and its effect on the character of the landscape.
Bramdean and Hinton Ampner Parish Council also lodged concerns about the potential conversion of the outbuilding and the development's size.
They said: "The application lacks crucial information about the planned use of the outbuilding."
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However, these fears were allayed by the council, which agreed that the site could permitted, as long as vehicles and equipment were not parked or stored on the bridleway and if the public retained the right to use the bridleway safely. It was agreed that construction vehicles would use an alternative access to the site.
Mr Millington, the applicant, disputed the claims of contamination and said that a contamination officer visited the site on January 15 and saw no evidence of it.
Winchester City Council, which dealt with the application on behalf of the South Downs National Park, said that the development wouldn't pose a risk to the South Downs or contravene the planning development policy in place to protect the national park, nor would it pose a risk of overlooking.
In the planning officer's report, it said: “In this particular case, given the size of the host dwelling and plot the proposal is not considered to be in conflict with the underlying purposes of the policy, which are to protect the supply of smaller homes and to protect the landscape character of the National Park."
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