PLANS to turn an agricultural building near Coldridge into a one-bedroom house have been dismissed at appeal.

Edward Claye of Green Acres Farm at Frogberry Cross had wanted to convert a single-storey timber field shelter under “Class Q” of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015, which allows the conversion of agricultural buildings into homes without the need for a full planning application.

The new home would have been 42 square metres in size and have had an open-plan living/ dining area, a bedroom and a shower room.

Mid Devon District Council rejected the plans in December, saying the access point was “not suitable for residential purposes” as it goes directly out onto a “high-speed rural road with a documented collision history”. Devon County Council’s Highways department said there would be “severe highway safety risks”.

The district council added that converting the building into a home would have been “impractical and not sensible when considering its isolated location within the field and the immediately adjacent conflicting land uses which in this case surround the building with no prospect of any substantial separation”.

Mr Claye appealed to the Planning Inspectorate to overturn the local authority’s decision, suggesting that the entrance hedgerows could be trimmed back for better visibility and the track could be improved. Devon County Council’s Highways department described his suggestions as “acceptable” and said it would remove its previous objections.

But the Planning Inspectorate said a Class Q conversion “requires consideration as to whether the building to be converted has suitable existing access to a public highway”, and that the building in question “presently does not”.

It also agreed with the district council that the shelter would be “impractical and undesirable to be converted to a residential use” as it would need separating from the farmland around it.

“To provide some separation from the adjoining land uses, such as for livestock grazing, some form of enclosure would need to be provided around the building,” an inspector wrote.

“A fence might well serve this purpose; however, my view is that the improved access track would also need to be enclosed, and then the land between the track and the aforementioned hedge would most likely be impractical to access for continued agricultural purposes.”

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal.

You can see the application on Mid Devon District Council’s website under reference 25/01482/PNCOU.