Agricultural occupancy condition broken at Woonton home

Planning permission to build Hazeldene, in Woonton between Weobley and Lyonshall, was granted to Lt Col R Snead-Cox of Broxwood (given as “Boxwood”) Court in 1967 on condition that it was “limited to persons employed locally in agriculture (and their) dependents”.

But now a Mr J R Snead-Cox and Mrs A Allen are seeking a certificate of lawfulness (planning application 252047) that this condition has been breached for so long that it can no longer be acted on.

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Their application says that the last farming inhabitant of the bungalow, a Harry Sheers, died in 2004, and that none of the tenants to have occupied the property since have worked in farming – a claim supported with a sworn statement by Broxwood Court Estate manager Mike Allen.

A similar statement from Karen Clark, tenant at the house since 2012, confirms that neither she nor her husband, now retired, has ever worked in farming.

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Paul Segrott, former partner at estate management firm Balfours LLP of Ludlow, likewise confirms that neither of the tenants with whom he arranged leases on the property had been farm workers.

Planning authorities are obliged to issue certificates of lawfulness overriding planning conditions where it can be shown “on the balance of probabilities” that they have been breached for more than ten years.

Comments on the current application can be made until September 9.