Planning row over barn built during lockdown still rages as couple fight decision to knock it down
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE couple fear they will have to close their farm because of a years-long planning dispute with a council.
Sunny and Sandy Johal-gill, who keep more than 40 sheep in Gunthorpe, were ordered to take down a barn which Newark and Sherwood District Council called “inappropriate”.
After an unsuccessful appeal, the council declined to determine an application for a new barn at Park Farm.
The farmers, who supply lamb to Michelin star restaurant Sat Bains, said their animals’ welfare relied on the building and described their experience with the council as “absolutely ridiculous”.
The council says it has a “duty to enforce planning law”.
Mr and Mrs Johal-gill say they have spent around £78,000 on the barn and unsuccessful planning bids.
“All I want is a shelter for my animals and for them to be safe,” said Mrs Johal-gill, 44. “There’s no reason we should’ve been treated the way we’ve been treated.”
The unauthorised barn has been allowed to remain for the time being, due to the presence of bats and the requirement for shelter for sheep as they give birth.
But the couple fear their flock, which could double in size, will be left with no shelter.
They said the barn saved the lives of their sheep when fields flooded in January.
“It was horrific, Sunny was pulling pregnant sheep out of the water,” said Mrs Johal-gill. “We saved them. We’re on a flood plain so when we flood the road floods and we can’t take them anywhere.”
Having begun their farming careers at the Park, off Lowdham Road in 2017, the couple built the barn to store agricultural equipment and provide a shelter for their sheep without getting the green light from the council, instead hoping to be granted retrospective planning permission.
“It was in lockdown so trying to get through to the council was impossible,” said Mrs Johal-gill.
The barn was reported to the council in 2021. A retrospective application was refused and an enforcement notice was issued by the council, which cited “inappropriate design and insufficient agria cultural justification within the Green Belt area”.
One set of neighbours took issue with the barn, describing it as “more akin to a dwelling”.
Others were supportive. “We are the neighbours with the clearest view of the building... We have no objections to the presence of this building. The style is completely in keeping with other outbuildings in
the area,” reads one comment.
An appeal was dismissed, and Mr and Mrs Johal-gill said a planning inspector harshly judged the fact the sheep were not using the barn despite it being 28C outside.
“We were not made aware that the sheep had to come in while the inspectorate visited,” said Mrs Johalgill.
The couple were then advised to apply for a new barn, but this was also rejected.
“After taking legal advice, we declined to determine the application given the overall design similarities with the unauthorised and the proposed building,” said Councillor Andy Freeman, chairman of the planning committee.
Mr Gill said: “When they said it didn’t meet the requirements I was shocked. It would look like a completely different building. We cladded the whole building, raised the roof by half a metre and put in flood defences.”
The couple have been told that they can build a new barn in the same location if the “agricultural justification has progressed”.
The 46-year-old, who started farming in an effort to “peel off” his job as a gas engineer, added: “The next step would be to take them to the High Court, but to go there is ridiculous money, probably more than what the barn is worth. Why don’t they work with us? They have made our lives so difficult.”
Councillor Freeman said: “We understand that this must be frustrating for the applicant, but we have a duty to enforce planning law.”
He urged Mr and Mrs Johal-gill to “continue working with us to resolve this situation”.
But Mr Gill, who believes they are two of few Sikh farmers in the UK, said the council was “not working with us at all”.
Mrs Johal-gill added: “I’m not sure where it goes from here. Approve a building, tell me where to put it, what size it needs to be.”
A petition started by the couple has attracted almost 1,000 signatures.