Continued Use of Building for Mixed Agriculture & Farm Shop

Acorus submitted a successful planning application for an already established farm shop in Buckinghamshire. The application which was approved in November 2007 was a retrospective application for a farm shop that had developed on site.

The site extends to approximately 10 acres and is used for the growing of horticultural produce primarily under glass. Whilst the selling of the produce grown on site did not require planning consent, the evolution of the business meant consumer demand required off-site goods such as cakes, condiments, pots, tools and paintings to be sold. As such, the developed shop required a retrospective application in order for the business to remain on site.

The site was near to nationally designated sites including SSSI, and ancient Woodland Sites and a large number of the customer base came from a local hospital. There was a good community acceptance of the shop and the Local Authority considered the proposal to be acceptable as a form of agricultural diversification. The subject building where development had taken place was a redundant agricultural barn and as such, was ideally suited for a diversification proposal.