Attempts to dismiss planning relaxation opposed

Controversial plans to block barn conversions for commercial use will undermine the beleaguered rural economy and diminish options for struggling farmers to make ends meet, a Dales councillor claims.

The leader of Richmondshire District Council. Councillor John Blackie is opposing a bid in the Dales to remove development rights that currently allow planning permission to be bypassed for the conversion of barns for commercial use.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, of which Coun Blackie is a member, has voted in favour of making a direction to remove permitted development rights with its boundaries. The rules were only introduced by the Government last spring.

The proposal is currently subject to the outcome of a public consultation. If members then proceed, the Article 4 direction under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 will come into force 12 months later.

Coun Blackie is adamant that planning rules need to be relaxed and fears a two-tier planning regime will exist in Richmondshire if the Authority gets its way.

He is stepping up his opposition to the Authority’s plan today, by raising an urgent item at a meeting of Richmondshire District Council’s Strategy Board when he will press for the Council’s united opposition to the Article 4 direction.

“I don’t think I’m being over dramatic in saying I believe the very future of our communities up here in the Dales is at stake,” Coun Blackie said.

“We need people working locally so they can afford to live locally. To do that we need opportunities for some home grown enterprise, particularly around tourism. That’s where custom is going to come from and if that’s the case we need premises.

“This is a national planning initiative to ease control on planning to give some flexibility and I find it outrageous that the very planning authority that has more agricultural barns suitable for conversion for commercial purposes per square inch than any other should stand in the way of a national initiative that is absolutely designed to help the local authorities within its jurisdiction.

“What’s been introduced here by the Government will provide a boost to farming funds, a boost for tourism, a boost for employment and a boost for the trade of small firms involved in construction. If it means people can live locally, it will keep the corridors and classrooms of our schools filled with local children, it will keep doctors surgeries open and the services we rely on, and if that doesn’t happen then that’s when communities collapse.”

His stance was greeted with disappointment by Peter Charlesworth, chairman of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, who said members must be careful to protect the character of the National Park while creating the conditions in which communities can thrive.

“He’s going entirely against the overwhelming majority of the members and against National Park adopted policy and that is, to say the least, disappointing.

“We are very anxious to have a flexible policy that allows barns to be converted to commercial uses. It’s the sort of decision we make on an individual basis. We are not saying that no barns are going to be converted to commercial use at all.

“Like all local planning authorities we have a local plan which sets the policies that govern our planning decisions and our local plan for the National Park comes to an end in 2015. At the moment we are consulting on a local plan which includes a consultation on what local communities want to feedback about the use of all the 6,000 agricultural barns in the National Park which are mostly unused.

“What we are doing here is consulting on what governing policing to have for the next 15 years and we will take into account comments from the consultation before we decide what to do.”

A report summarising the results of the consultation is due to be brought before the Authority next month.