Hobbit-style holiday home turned down by planners
PLANS for a Hobbit-style burrow and a range of glamping accommodation have been refused due to a lack of public transport and the impact of the site on the landscape.
Members of the Derbyshire Dales District Council planning committee refused the plans, which would have seen a range of glamping accommodation built at Horsley House Farm, north of Ashbourne.
At a meeting this week, councillors decided that the applicant should be sent back to review their plans and come back with a more “modest” scheme, possibly with less accommodation that is more concealed.
If approved, the scheme, at Bradbourne, would include three safari tents, a yurt, “pigeon loft”, burrow, shepherd’s hut and a treehouse.
The Hobbit-hole style “burrow” would be built in a wildflower meadow and would be dug into the existing bank and buried into the hillside, with concrete walls and a grass roof.
It would have wooden windows and a wooden door along with a one-metre square skylight, and would have two bedrooms. It would be clad in limestone panels.
Cllr Clare Gamble and Cllr Sue Burfoot both felt it was unfair to reject a “minuscule” application with space for around 10-12 cars when sites such as Chatsworth and Haddon Hall had extensive parking areas that can be seen for miles around.
They said the site and its proposed accommodation would barely be vis- ible from the road and from the Peak District National Park, unlike those at Chatsworth and Haddon. They also felt it was unfair to reject an application due to its lack of public transport links.
They said that guests at many sites across the Dales do not use public transport to travel and council officers confirmed there are many sites where they cannot use this justification.
Lauren Brewer, one of the applicants, told the meeting that Horsley House Farm, which is Grade-II* listed is their family home.
She said: “It is this rural setting that is the appeal to visitors.
“We want to build something for the long term, developed sustainably, in phases, over a number of years which will create new jobs and have a significant contribution to the local economy which helps restore the nature and ecology of this important site.
“We hope to protect, restore and invest in the property, breathing life into it as a family home and business.”
Sarah Arbon, a senior planning officer for the district council, said the setting of the listed farmhouse needs to be protected, suggesting that the car park would also damage the landscape.
She said: “It is considered that the creation of this new-build holiday accommodation in this otherwise isolated and remote location in the countryside, where visitors will most likely depend on their own private car to visit the site, amounts to an unsustainable form of development, which does not promote sustainable rural tourism.”
Ms Arbon said the scheme would feature “substantial structures in the landscape throughout the year”.
Cllr Gamble said: “You (Ms Arbon) raised that this is an unsustainable form of tourism due to the fact that people would have to go by car.
“Are you telling me that all our holiday accommodation in the Derbyshire Dales is accessible by bus and by public transport and that nobody currently goes to holiday accommodation in their car?”
Jon Bradbury, development manager for the district council, said: “There are lots of properties within the Dales where we can’t exercise any control of people using their car to come to the Dales, but we have a duty, in terms of helping to tackle climate change, amongst other things, to try and encourage holiday accommodation where people have the means to travel by other means than private car.” Cllr Gamble said: “I live in the national park and we have huge campsites of 200 or more that are visible from miles around which don’t seem to cause a problem, so I am slightly taken aback that these glamping pods, which are going to be sensitively placed, and you’re driving past at 50mph, do you seriously think it is going to be that much of an impact?”
Cllr Burfoot said: “I welcome this as an exciting addition to the tourism industry, I think it will be really popular.
“Not being served by public transport, let’s get real. Do you really think anyone is going to trudge to this place by bus, carrying all of their baggage, for a week’s holiday? Of course they are not.”
But Cllr Colin Swindell said there were many glamping sites in the Lake District, but claimed they were always obscured from view. He said: “I don’t think anyone is against glamping or bringing tourism to the area. I would love to see this sort of thing more in the Derbyshire Dales but I don’t think it is the right area.”
I would love to see this sort of thing more in the Derbyshire Dales but I don’t think it is the right area.
Cllr Colin Swindell