Farm goes on market after conversion plans approved

A former farm in South Ribble has gone on the market after permission was granted to turn it into an estate of industrial units designed to house start-up businesses.

Councillors last month gave the go-ahead to the redevelopment of the Model Farm site, on Croston Road in Farington, after a long-running wrangle over whether the plans were suitable for the greenbelt plot.

It means 13 ‘shell’ buildings can be constructed and rented out to fledgling businesses which would then be free to tailor the spaces for their own needs.

The land is now listed on property website Rightmove for “offers over £975,000” – with the description trumpeting the planning permission that now comes with the site for industrial, storage or office use.

South Ribble Borough Council’s planning committee approved the proposal at a recent meeting, having deferred its decision last December after questioning whether the farm should be classed as “previously developed”.

When conferred on greenbelt land, that status means new buildings are permitted in the location – provided they do not have any greater impact on the “openness” of the area than whatever they replace.

The committee was once again presented with a report by the authority’s planning officers which concluded that the former dairy farm did fall into the previously developed category – because of the past use of facilities on the site to manufacture and sell furniture.

However, Lancashire county councillor Michael Green – who represents the Moss Side and Farington division – said that while the agricultural business had “diversified to some extent”, it was only for the sale of “a few wooden planters and likewise”.

“It was not an industrial site in any way shape or form,” he insisted.

Acknowledging the economic benefits of the proposal, County Cllr Green said that it was nevertheless important to “stand up to protect the greenbelt”.

However, Sophie Marshall, the agent for the application, told the committee there was now “no question that the whole site is brownfield”, following the implementation of a separate permission allowing some of the farm buildings to be used for storage and distribution purposes.

She added that the applicant, Whitwell Properties Limited, had taken on board a range of other concerns expressed about their plans at December’s meeting – and “went to the expense and time to amend the scheme again”.

Some committee members remained unconvinced, with Cllr Mary Green saying she was saddened that so many applications were being “chewed on” and contrived “just so that we can allow yet another industrial unit on a…piece of greenbelt”.

However, the authority’s planning manager, Catherine Thomas, said it was not a matter of “wriggling around greenbelt policy”, but rather “looking [at] what the policy actually says”.

She told members that planning officers considered the demolition of what she described as the “substantial” number of buildings currently on the farm and their replacement with the 13 proposed units – which will have a maximum height of 6.7 metres – would “actually increase the openness of the site”.

Ms. Thomas stressed that national planning guidance encouraged “alternative uses” of redundant agricultural buildings – where the farms in question are “no longer viable” – in order to prevent their deterioration.

Committee member Cllr Will Adams said he felt the proposal was “a positive one”, which would have “a better visual impact” on the surrounding community.

The meeting was also told that the risk of the development getting in the way of longstanding proposals to widen the A582, which borders the site, had been resolved by changes to the layout of the units.

The application was approved by eight votes to two.