Alton Priors farmer faces new store fight (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Alton Priors farmer faces new store fight

7:00am Saturday 6th February 2010

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Farmer Tim Carson is facing more problems with the chemical store in his farmyard at Alton Priors after council planning officers recommended it be removed.

Mr Carson was served with a enforcement notice by the council in 2008, insisting that the container in Blacksmith’s Yard be moved.

There has been a chemical store in this or a similar container since the early 1990s.

Mr Carson appealed against the notice but lost when Wiltshire Council retained the services of a top barrister from London.

Now the council is recommending his fresh planning application for refusal, despite receiving six letters of support from his neighbours.

One came from Steve Husk who lives at The Manor. He wrote: “I do not object in any shape or form to the container being sited in the yard. It is tidy, it is out of the way and it is clearly necessary.”

Mr Carson did not want to comment in advance of the meeting of the planning committee at Devizes which is due to take place tonight, but it is understood he did not know the application was going to be discussed until it came up in conversation with his local councillor.

A report to the meeting by planning officer Andrew Guest insists that the main issue is not whether the chemical store, which is statutory for any farmer, is unsightly, but because it is the subject of an outstanding enforcement notice.

Mr Guest said: “The main reason for issuing the enforcement notice was that the storage container, by reason of its prominent siting and stark utilitarian appearance, detracts from the character and appearance of the area.”

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