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Title of Decision Requested: Enforcement
Notice for Land at Gallowell Lane, Braunton Burrows Case ref
13912

Decision requested by decision maker: Approval to issue Enforcement
Notice for Land at Gallowell Lane, Braunton Burrows Devon

Reasons for the decision

The site is located in the countryside,
outside of any defined settlement boundary. Policy ST07(4) of the
North Devon and Torridge Local Plan 2011-2031 (NDTLP) establishes
that development within the countryside will be limited to that
which is enabled to meet local economic and social needs, rural
building reuse and development which is necessarily restricted to a
countryside location.

The site in total which includes unauthorised buildings,
hardstanding and grazing/ marsh area measures approximately 7,000
square meters none of which currently has an agricultural use which
requires a countryside location. The LPA have attended the site on
several occasions and on all those occasions no agricultural use of
the site was evident. The main building was in use in August 2024
to store building related items and on the last visit on 10
February 2025 whereby a few basic items relating to poultry/bird
rearing were found inside (chicken wire and one small feeder). No
livestock were present at any visit, nor items which would support
this activity and on the latest visit it was found an additional
bock built generator store had been constructed at the site. It is
acknowledged that the applicant does not live in the North Devon
Area. Due to a lack of agricultural function at the site the
justification for the storage buildings and hardstanding for an
agricultural purpose is questionable. The cumulative size of the
holding is 0.7 hectares which includes a large portion of wet
marshy land, and it is debatable whether an agricultural venture
would even succeed at the site. Policy ST07 4) states that In the
Countryside beyond local centres, villages and rural settlements
development will be limited to that which is enabled to meet local
economic and social needs, rural building reuse and development
which is necessarily restricted to a countryside location.

See report for full details

Alternative options considered

There are no other actions the Council can
take to remedy this breach of planning control. The owner has
partially complied and removed one building on the land but the
remnants of that building remain stored on the land. The owner has
also sought retrospective planning permission (ref 79611) to retain
one building on the land but this was refused by decision on 5
March 2025 and following a period given to remove the building and
cease the storage use, the breaches remain on the land
unresolved.