Hello

[ACF]

New to the forum, looking to glean useful pointers for a possible, though highly improbable, new build on our own land for our future retirement. Planning will be a major obstacle, unfortunately.

[jack]

Welcome.

Head over the planning sub-forum and have a read. Lots of good info over there. If you have specific issues, ask away.

[ACF]

Thank you for the welcome. I will study the planning sub-forum and if anyone is interested in commenting on our situation, please feel free and thank you, even if it's relentlessly negative!

 

We live in an AONB on an old fruit farm with almost 3 acres. The orchard is virtually non-existent now (not our neglect, it was last in full swing in the 1960s and had only a handful of gnarled old cherry trees left when we arrived 4 years ago) so it's effectively just a large garden with an area of scrubland backing onto farmland in a linear style village. We'd love to divide it into two and build a low key, probably barn style or timber framed eco home on the old orchard site, replanting a large number of the fruit trees and putting in appropriate plantings for biodiversity, selling the main house with an acre or so to fund it. Unfortunately, because there is no evidence of so much as a shed ever having been on the actual orchard site, I'm struggling to tick any of the boxes the planners would likely demand. I've done a lot of reading online but haven't yet approached a planning consultant as I don't want to waste time and money if it's a complete no-go. There would be no impact whatsoever on any neighbours as the site is very well shielded by mature hedgerows and it wouldn't detract from the beauty of the landscape either. A couple of properties in the same AONB have been granted permission in recent years for large, impressive new builds to replace tiny, ugly structures, not even a dwelling in one case, on the basis of replacement - pretty tenuous in view of the scale but still  to be welcomed in my view. I just find it infuriating that a sensitive, enhancing project like ours would likely be blocked as overdevelopment when it would be comparatively smaller in scale and of no consequence to anyone else. Any thoughts from those who've experienced similar would be very welcome, thanks

[jack]

1 hour ago, ACF said:

Any thoughts from those who've experienced similar would be very welcome, thanks

 

Can you please repost your question over in the planning sub-forum? https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/forum/108-planning-permission/

 

A lot of members don't read posts in the Introduce Yourself section. It's also helpful for future readers for discussions about specific topics to be in the right sub-forum rather than in this section.

 

Thanks

Jack

[ACF]

Got it, thanks, just finding my way around the site! Appreciate you responding, thanks

[jack]

1 hour ago, ACF said:

Got it, thanks, just finding my way around the site! Appreciate you responding, thanks

 

Thanks. I appreciate it takes some navigating at first!

[MikeSharp01]

3 hours ago, ACF said:

We live in an AONB on an 

Doesn't everybody in Kent! Welcome to the Forum from another Kentish Man / Man of Kent.