Sanctuary facing closure after long planning battle over stables

For more than five years Mary Hepworth and her family, who run Albert's Horse Sanctuary in Cawthorne, have been entrenched in a planning battle with Barnsley Council after they built 12 stables without planning consent.

If planning permission is refused once again at a meeting on Tuesday the owners have promised to pull down the stables – therefore closing the sanctuary – within the month.

After building the stables some years ago the Hepworths applied for retrospective planning permission, but were refused on the grounds that the buildings constituted inappropriate development in a green belt location.

Enforcement notices were issued by Barnsley Council in January 2008, compelling the sanctuary to take the stables down, and an appeal against those notices was unsuccessful.

The Hepworths were then given nine months from May 2008 to remove the buildings but, in March last year, they submitted another planning application – which was refused.

Enforcement proceedings began again but the stables were not pulled down. Last month, Barnsley Council began legal proceedings against the sanctuary at Barnsley Magistrates' Court.

The Hepworths promised to remove the buildings before May 1 if this latest planning application is refused. The court case was therefore adjourned until May 6.

This latest application is for just eight stables, rather than the original 12, as well as a barn and storage container. However, council planning officers say that "in essence", the application is much the same as the previous one, as it involves converting the third stable block into a barn to store feed, rather than pulling it down.

Four stables would be used to house old injured horses and four more would be occupied by rescued sheep, goats, pigs and donkeys.

Objections have come from eight locals as well as Cawthorne Parish Council, who say that the stables are an "eyesore", traffic movements generated by the sanctuary are "dangerous to highway safety" and the application "does not represent the full developments of the site, which include two large containers, two huts, a children's play area, rickety wooden shelters and two mobile caravans."

In their report which is set to go before Tuesday's planning meeting, council officers agree with the objectors and say that the stables are "inappropriate."

The report says: "The issue of the appropriateness of the stables has already been considered by the planning inspectorate, whereby the inspector dismissed the appeal against the enforcement notice in regard to the stables, and considered them inappropriate development as well as having a detrimental impact on the openness of the green belt. The circumstances have not changed since this decision.

"Objectors have also raised concerns regarding other structures on the site. These factors harm the rural character of the area by giving it a more developed appearance.

"The stables present considerable structures which impact substantially on the openness and rural character of the area, and no special circumstances are put forward which outweigh the harm caused."

Tuesday's planning meeting is scheduled to begin at 2pm at Barnsley Town Hall.

A spokesman for Albert's Horse Sanctuary was not available for comment yesterday.