Meenu Saluja told the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority that the upper floor of the garage at Hanlith Hall, near Skipton, had been accommodation for the estate gamekeeper, but did not provide enough evidence for officers to grant her a lawful development certificate for the building’s residential use.

Consent for the two-storey outbuilding to be extended and used as a games room was granted in 2005. At a site visit at the end of 2022, planning officers who inspected the upper floor found evidence it had been occupied by persons, including a bathroom and kitchenette.

Mrs Saluja, who recently bought the property, subsequently applied for a certificate granting the use of the room as a flat, and indicated it had been used as living accommodation for over 10 years, independently of the occupation of Hanlith Hall itself.

The report stated: “The evidence submitted by the applicant is inconclusive. The statement of truth states that the flat was occupied firstly by the former owner’s son and then a local gamekeeper but does not provide any verifiable dates and these claims have not been substantiated with any form of verifiable supporting evidence, such as tenancy agreements, rent books, council tax payments etc.

"Nor is it supported by any evidence submitted by the purported occupiers. The applicant has been asked to provide additional information and has not been able to do so.

“Evidence has been provided through a copy of a newspaper article about the property when it was marketed for sale, but this again is not conclusive and does not prove that the first floor of the building was used as a self-contained flat throughout the time in question.

"The National Park Authority has sought evidence from the Council Tax and Building Control teams at Craven District Council (now North Yorkshire County Council). The Council Tax team has advised that there has only ever been one domestic dwelling listed for Council Tax by the Valuation Agency Office at Hanlith Hall. Building Control have confirmed that internal works had been carried out. In March 2006 an application to Building Control was submitted to the then Craven District Council who, after an inspection noted that the “work was essentially complete. It would require a completion inspection to ensure all is acceptable.

"The applicant has not satisfactorily proven that, on the balance of probability, the first floor has been used continuously as an independent self-contained flat for the ten year period that precedes the date of the submission of the application. Insufficient evidence has been provided by the applicant, but the evidence collected by the Authority, in particular that provided by Building Control confirms that the building works were not legally completed, and the Council Tax recordsshow that the property was never registered as a separate dwelling. There are no separate bills, invoices, rental or tenancy agreements that support the claim that the building has been occupied as such and the written statement of truth does not contain any corroborative evidence either.”

The certificate was refused.

The 17th-century hall at Kirkby Malham was the seat of the Serjeantson family for centuries. It was rebuilt in the 19th century, and from 1909 became the home of Dudley Holden Illingworth, the son of a union between children of two of Bradford’s wealthiest mill-owning families. The Illingworths extended the hall, adding a billiard room and new gardens. After Dudley’s death in the 1950s, the estate was sold off in separate lots, and the house was bought by a builder who planned to demolish it. Salvation came from Sir William Bulmer, another Bradford wool industry grandee. He and his wife improved the hall, but later converted the old laundry and garages added by the Illingworths into a cottage that they then moved into, selling the hall but retaining the estate.

They disposed of the land in 1985, when Sir William retired to the Channel Islands. The hall went up for sale in both 1999 and 2017, with 64 acres of gardens, stables, fishing rights on the River Aire and shooting rights on the nearby estate. The house has an indoor swimming pool and ballroom, but the old tennis court, installed by the Serjeantsons, is now a football pitch.

In the 1990s it was bought by the entrepreneur Michael Hurst, who owned a chain of upmarket fish and chip restaurants. His son Matthew learned falconry on the estate and later set up a business called Malhamdale Falconry.

It went on the market again in 2020, with two cottages included in the sale.

Owner of Yorkshire Dales stately home Hanlith Hall refused permission for flat - after failing to prove it had been occupied before