A plan to convert barns into four houses on an Owermoigne farm site will need to go through the planning permission process Dorset Council has decided, writes Trevor Bevins.

An application to allow the development under what is known as ‘permitted rights’ had been rejected by the council.

It will mean that if the plan to convert the pair of barns into two large and two smaller homes is to go ahead an application will have to be made as if it was a new development, making it open to public scrutiny and the comments of statutory authorities, including the parish council. In certain cases the conversion of some farm building is allowed without the need to follow the full planning process.

The barns are on a site south west of 29 Moreton Road at Owermoigne.

Read more: Former pigsty in Wanborough wins planning permission for development

Dorset Council decided that the work needed for conversion was so substantial that it would not fall within the scope of being a permitted development : “The building operations are substantial to an extent that there are considered to be more akin to a re-build than a conversion. The works would not, therefore, constitute permitted development,” said the decision report.

Originally published in Dorset Echo