PA23/06700: A change of use of land (retrospective) to a mixed use comprising storage and distribution (Class B8) and mobile hot food takeaway (sui generis) on land North Of Callywith Gate Industrial Estate Old Callywith Road Bodmin has been approved by Cornwall Council. The application was made by Mr and Mrs Richard and Charlotte Matthews. 

Bodmin Town Council were in support of the application. 

Conditions of the approval were issued by the planning application, namely: “The use of the site for the sale of hot food for consumption off the premises (i.e. the mobile hot food takeaway business) hereby permitted, shall at no time be operated by more than a single provider.

“Reason: To avoid an intensification of the use which may compromise highway safety and in the interests of the character and appearance of the area, in accordance with Policies 2, 3, 12, 13 and 27 of the Cornwall Local Plan Strategic Policies 2010-2030. 

“Within three months from the date of this consent a scheme of landscaping to provide screening to the site to the south boundary shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. 

“The landscaping scheme shall provide planting plans with written specifications including: Full schedule of plants; Details of the mix, size, distribution and density of all trees/shrubs/hedges; Cultivation proposals for the maintenance and management of the soft landscaping. 

“The use of the land for the hereby approved uses shall cease and the land reinstated such that it is suitable for agricultural production unless all planting, seeding or turfing comprised in the approved scheme of landscaping has been completed within one year from the date of this permission. 

“Any trees or plants which within a period of five years from implementation of the approved scheme die, are removed or become seriously damaged or diseased shall be replaced in the next planting season with others of a similar size and species as those originally planted. Reason: In the interests of visual amenity and to deliver environmental and biodiversity benefits in accordance with the aims and intentions of Policies 2, 12, 13 and 23 of the Cornwall Local Plan Strategic Policies 2010-2030 and Policies C1 and G1 of the Climate Emergency Development Plan Document.

PA23/05690: An application for a piece of land to be classified as a residential curtilage, namely a garden for a property in Bude has been refused by Cornwall Council’s planning department. 

The applicant, Miss Natalie Harrison had applied to the local authority for a certificate of lawfulness to confirm the lawful use of land as a residential curtilage from 1984 to 2009 for the property known as land between Foxhaven and Meadow View, Eastcott, Bude. 

To receive the certificate of lawfulness, the applicant had to demonstrate to Cornwall Council that the piece of land referred to was used in the purposes applied for – namely that between 1984 and 2009 it had been used as residential curtilage. 

The piece of land in question was previously the subject of multiple planning applications for redevelopment. 

In 2015, an application for the proposed erection of a four-bedroom dwelling was refused, in 2016, a proposed sustainable dwelling on the land was also refused with an appeal against the decision also rejected and in 2022, an application for outline planning permission with some matters reserved for a dwelling was also refused. 

Objections were raised by nearby residents, who said that the land had been overgrown and used as a ‘tip’ for a number of years, and that if it was a garden as the applicants claimed, it would not be in that state. 

One, Mrs Wendy Cook, said: “I write to object to the Certificate of Lawfulness application. During the applicants’ parents’ ownership of Mandamus, my family purchased hay each summer from Mr Harrison. 

“This was collected by tractor and trailer from the pasture to the south of Mandamus (now Foxhaven), accessed across the track on the land between Foxhaven and Meadow View. 

“The only piece of land that was regularly maintained was to the rear of Meadow View, where the pond was, and pets are buried. The piece of land to the right of the track, when accessed from the road into Eastcott, was a storage area for rubble and building materials from Mr Harrison’s building business.

“Since the land was separated in 2009 it has been abandoned and rewilded. It was only cleared prior to the previous refused application.”

An accompanying planning officers report said of the history of the site: “The Planning history to this application is important; there is no planning permission for the application site to be used as garden area for any dwelling.

“However, as part of the planning application for the dwelling now known as Meadow View (adjacent), a legal agreement dated July 28, 1988 states “upon granting of planning permission for the said development the owner will not carry out or permit to be carried out on the land any development or use or permit the land to be used for any development except the said development for a period of twenty years from the date of the granting of the planning permission for the said development excepting that this restriction shall not apply to the use of the land for agricultural use or for any bona fide use ancillary to the enjoyment of the dwelling forming part of the said development.”

“The land was originally part of the residential land of Foxhaven, however, this link ceased in 2009 when the Foxhaven was sold and the parcel of land, subject of this application, was retained.  

“This land was, in 2009, taken outside of any residential garden and, as a consequence, any ancillary or incidental use, to any lawful C3 use was severed.  I must consider the use of the new planning unit from 2009 to the date of this application.

“From historical aerial imagery, there are clear boundaries between the application site and the dwellings either side. 

“As such it is considered that this land is not used as an incidental or ancillary area of either dwelling and, given the lack of any use in the intervening period and that no planning application for change of use of the land has been approved, the application site is currently in a ‘nil’ use but could lawfully be used for agriculture or forestry.”

The refusal notice stated: “The information submitted is not sufficiently precise and unambiguous to justify the grant of a certificate on the balance of probability for the use of land as incidental or ancillary to any lawful C3 use.