Long-awaited barn ruling is solution 'everyone will hate'

A SOLUTION that “everyone will hate” has been recommended to end a bitter, decade-long dispute in a dale hamlet.
An action group in Windmill has been at odds with the owners of Mill House Farm since planning permission was given for three barns for cattle farming on the 20-acre property.
Although two of the barns have been built, a Local Government Ombudsman found that Teesdale District Council and Durham County Council should not have given consent for the buildings.
Durham County Council’s south and west planning committee is now backing a solution which will put conditions on the use of the two barns and revokes planning permission for the third.
People in Windmill have called for the barns to be removed, the landowners Brian and Janet Sewell compensated, and the property returned to traditional farming.
The owners, who are supported by Evenwood and Barony Parish Council and the National Farmers Union (NFU), say they have done nothing wrong and want to stay put.
Tension in the hamlet is such that police attended the planning committee meeting last Thursday and the two factions were kept apart during the hearing.
Speaking for Evenwood Parish Council, clerk Martin Clark called for the planning permissions to remain intact.
He said: “The personal, financial and emotion strain placed on Mrs Sewell has been intolerable. They did what was asked of them from the outset and decisions were made. They have had to suffer years of uncertainty – again it is not their fault. The parish council supports Mill House Farm.”
Andrew Cutherbertson, of the NFU, added: “Mill House Farm is the biggest victim in this entire ordeal. Mill House Farm currently has to operate under 24-hour police surveillance for their own protection leading from the anti-social behaviour.
“Trying to place retrospective conditions is most certainly not the answer or solution to the now much bigger neighbourhood issues that have been caused by the local authority’s maladministration.”
Neighbours, who complain about smells and noise emanating from the barns, say the only permanent solution is to stop intensive farming on the land.
Robert Potts, speaking for people in the hamlet, said: “All residents living opposite and so close to the site have been affected by and have evidence of its ongoing unacceptable impact. The council has apologised in writing to all residents living opposite this site for the injustice and ongoing suffering caused by environmental health dangers.
“The council needs to rectify its own repeated failures. For ten years, residents have experienced one council planning attempt after another to control the site – they have all failed. Revoking all the planning permissions is the only way to ensure the unacceptable impact is permanently removed. It may not be an easy thing to do, but it is the right thing to do.”
He called for the owners to be compensated and relocated to another farm.
Although environment officers say they have found no evidence of statutory nuisance emanating from the farm, they have warned of the potential for problems if a third barn is built.
This prompted committee members to advise that planning consent for it be revoked and that conditions be placed on the existing barns about the type of animals that can be kept there and when they should be housed. They also want a waste management plan put in place.
Cllr John Clare said: “I find this a truly tragic situation.
“Nobody in this room can be happy with the quality of their lives while they are still at war with this issue. The only way forward is, I think, for this council to drive something down the middle. Experience tells that this will satisfy nobody, everybody will hate it, but the fact of the matter is that down the middle is where we have to drive.”
The solution was recommended by 11 votes against one.
Planning officers will take the committee’s advice into account when they make their final decision on a solution.
The two factions from Windmill were asked to leave the council chamber by separate exits.