A call to allow a family to be allowed to keep using an outbuilding, occupied for more than two decades as a home while the main farmhouse was used as an AirBnB holiday let, has been allowed.
In an application to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Mr D Davies, through agent Ian Bartlett Planning and Architectural Services, sought permission for a certificate of lawfulness for the use of a building, The Stable, Chapel Farm, some 1km south of Newgale, as a dwelling house and associated land as a residential curtilage.
An application for a certificate of lawfulness allows an applicant to stay at a development if they can provide proof of occupancy over a prolonged period.
A supporting statement said former outbuilding The Stable was located in a wider complex including the farmhouse known as ‘Chapel Farm’, occupied as short term holiday accommodation.
It said conversion works started in 2002, completed in 2004, to provide residential use, with a small extension in 2017, with the applicant and family occupying it since then.
It said the Farmhouse had been continuously let as holiday accommodation, with the family living in The Stable and evidence supplied was “sufficiently clear and unambiguous to demonstrate on the balance of probability that the building has been occupied as a dwelling for a period in excess of four years and there has been defined associated residential curtilage in excess of 10 years”.
An officer report said evidence showed The Stable “has been occupied continuously as an independent residential unit for more than four years prior to the application, with only a brief absence by the applicant during which family members maintained occupancy”.
It added: “The applicant also purchased the building outright in 2020, reinforcing the independent residential status. The building benefits from separate utility services, including individual Wi-Fi accounts and utility invoices addressed specifically to The Stable. The adjoining farmhouse, Chapel Farm, has been let commercially as short-term holiday accommodation during the relevant period, rendering it separate in both use and occupation.
“There is no record of formal enforcement action or an enforcement notice served in respect of the building’s residential use. Given the continuous use for the relevant periods, the use is considered immune from enforcement action under the applicable legislation.
“On the balance of probabilities, the evidence demonstrates that The Stable has been occupied as an independent dwellinghouse for a period in excess of four years, and that the associated residential curtilage has been in continuous use for more than ten years.”
The certificate of lawfulness was granted by park planners.
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