Hi, I have been running my agricultural business since March 2010, in August 2011 I secured planning for a log cabin for a temporary period of 3 Years... My little business has gone from strength to strength and I am now eager to make this my permanent career with the submission of a permanent rural workers dwelling. One of the planning "guidelines" is that the business needs to be established for at least 3 years with one year being profitable. At the end of July I will have 3 year chartered accounts with I am hoping my third year being profitable enough to sustain a mortgage for a build cost of £100,000.00 @ £7000.00 per year. The fact that the log cabin will have only been on site for 2 years come August 2013 was highlighted in my pre-app as a potential problem... however the planning policy doesn't necessarily say that the cabin MUST be on site for 3 years also, but the business MUST be established for 3years etc. etc. I have spoken to a couple of Agriculitural Agents and asked for their opinion and they have been 50/50, one says as long as the facts and figures stack up and i have 3 years books then it is almost irrelevant of how long the cabin has been on site because you have proved the functional need by the financial figures. You hear of these farming businesses that have been ran off site for 25years then all of a sudden in the last 10years or so they are needing to be on site. The other says lets give it a go but ideally we should wait until August 2014 and we then would have over 4years books... the log cabin in itself also needs about £15,000 spent on it to make it more suitable for the winter as it was second hand when we bought it and although it has served us well, the weather has taken it toll. Why spend that money on something that is only going to be torn down in a year when you could invest it into the farm in the form of a workers dwelling? What I guess I am trying to get at is, do you think that the new and old planning policies would look "favorably" on me submitting my 3 year accounts even when I have only been living on site 24hrs a day for 2 years? my pre app didn't really highlight anything that I didn't already know. Thoughts would be much appreciated!
