An inspector appointed by the Secretary of State has backed South Gloucestershire Council’s refusal to grant planning permission for a barn in a field at St Catherine, near Bath.
In January 2024 the council considered an application for a 20-metre by 10-metre barn for storage and an all-weather riding arena on land at Beeks Lane.
The site lies off narrow Beeks Lane, within the Green Belt and Cotswolds National Landscape, and is part of a larger field for which there is a certificate of lawful development for keeping, grazing, exercising and schooling horses, and for two stables.
The application said the barn was needed to store stable bedding, hay, other feedstock, tack, horse boxes, a tractor and associated cultivation and field maintenance implements.
But the council decided that a building of such a size and scale in a largely open landscape would not preserve the openness of the Green Belt and would be inappropriate development.
However, the council was happy to approve a 40-metre by 30-metre riding arena nearby, saying it would fall within the provision of appropriate facilities for outdoor sport and recreation.
The only difference to the land would be a change in the surfacing and a fence.
The applicant appealed against the barn decision, but the inspector has agreed that it would amount to inappropriate development in the Green Belt.
The inspector observed: “The barn would not appear out of place within its rural setting and would be similar in appearance to an agricultural building.
“There would be limited visibility of the barn from Beeks Lane. Nonetheless, the proposal introduces significant built volume which would be visible from the surrounding fields.
“By virtue of its extensive footprint and massing, the barn would appear visually prominent and would have a harmful eroding effect on the openness of the Green Belt which would be far greater than the existing jumps, machinery, trailer and other paraphernalia currently stored on the site.”
The inspector said there was no dispute that the all-weather arena is acceptable.
One of the conditions attached to the arena is that in the interests of road safety, it can only be used by horses kept on site.
