A CEREDIGION farmer’s call to convert a derelict building last occupied in the 1930s as a downsizing home on land he has farmed all his life has been turned down by county planners.
At the March meeting of Ceredigion County Council’s development management committee, members were recommended to refuse an application by Mr and Mrs I and A Evans, of Fronlwyd, Llangrannog to erect a bungalow, agricultural shed and associated works on the site of the nearby abandoned dwelling at Fronlwyd/Pen-yr-Allt, just over a mile from Llangrannog, which was last occupied in 1936.
It was recommended for refusal on grounds including it was “unjustified new housing in open countryside”.
It had previously been recommended for refusal at the February meeting but was deferred pending a site visit by the site inspection panel.
Mr Evans has previously given an impassioned plea to be allowed to build the bungalow.
Mr Evans, who warned he was “not a big fan of public speaking,” said: “I have farmed the land all my life, I live in a five-bed house, just me and the wife, we’re getting older.
“We want to build a bungalow just so we can future-proof as we get older; I don’t want to leave the land I’ve farmed all my life; I like being out in the fresh air and listening to the birds and the animals.”
He said there was more of the ruined building present when he was a child, the building declining after “years of not being looked after”.
He told members he wanted the site to go back to “what I remember as a kid”, adding: “In the olden days they knew how to build houses, it’s in a little dip and only visible from one direction, it’s ideally situated.
“I would look after the land and me and my wife in our old age; I just want to stay there, that’s where I’ve lived all my life, and I want to stay there.”
At the March meeting, members heard the panel viewed the “ruinous” site finding it “limited to a base outline,” where “no whole part of the structure remains standing”.
Cllr Gareth Lloyd, who had attended the site inspection, moved the recommendation of refusal “with a heavy heart”.
“Unfortunately, in this application it had gone too far; even though there are some walls you can’t tell if it used to be a house or a barn.”
Committee members unanimously backed the recommendation of refusal.
