Address: Ferriers Farm Barns Ferriers Lane Bures Hamlet Essex CO8 5DL 

 

Proposal: Regeneration and Conversion of 3 brick barns to residential use 

 

Case Officer: Juliet Kirkaldy 

 

Comment:The Colne Stour Countryside Association (CSCA) objects to the applicant’s proposal to build houses on this site for the following reason. The site is outside the Bures hamlet village envelope by some distance. It may create the possibility of further housing on a site which is beautiful countryside and very rural. Ferriers is a house of significant historic importance. 

 

Any permission granted for this development should ensure that newly built houses are built sympathetically in keeping with the main house itself. The planning committee should consider the planning inspector’s comments in paragraph 24 in his dismissal of the appeal by David Gladman on the Colchester Road site which the CSCA reproduces in full: “24. In this case I consider that there is ample evidence that the landscape around Bures, including the appeal site, is not ordinary countryside of no value but is of high sensitivity and is locally valued. 

 

That evidence encompasses: its inclusion in the Stour Valley Project Area and the Management Plan; the commissioning and conclusions of the Farmer Report; the submissions to Natural England to review the AONB designation; and the related text of the emerging Local Plan at paragraph 8.27 which highlights the sensitive nature of the upper Stour Valley and supports the aims of the Management Plan whilst also seeking to avoid prejudicing the expressed long term aim to extend the AONB to this area.” 

 

This site is in the area described by the Inspector. The best option would be to restore the barns and use them for farming or light industrial purposes; otherwise, they should be pulled down and the land revert to agricultural use.