Winfrey Farm is a farm complex on the southern side of Dadlington Lane, west of Stapleton’s rural hamlet.
The site is in the countryside, surrounded by fields adjacent to an existing farmhouse in the northeastern corner of the site.
Working alongside Lychgate Homes Ltd, we have submitted several applications on the site over the years, trying to obtain planning permission to convert the existing barns to residential use.
We submitted an initial Class Q permitted development application in 2020. This application was to convert a number of the traditional brick buildings on site, plus three large steel-framed structures, to residential use.
Class Q planning policy permits the conversion of certain redundant buildings under permitted development rules without requiring full planning consent.
Unfortunately, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council refused this initial application, which was subsequently dismissed at a planning appeal by the inspector.
Following this, we decided to submit a further class Q application, this time only utilising the existing traditional brick-built barns to convert them to five dwellings. Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council approved this application towards the end of 2020.
As a company, we like to look at the commercial element of planning applications. Therefore we were further engaged to see if we could create more value from the site, over and above the class Q approval.
Working closely with Fox Country Properties, we concluded that the area would achieve high sales figures, so we decided to submit a new application. This time we reduced the number of dwellings to four. We looked to gain planning permission for some small extensions to the barns, plus garaging, which would, in turn, increase the value of the properties.
Planning permission was granted in 2021 to convert the existing agricultural buildings into four dwellings.
Work has started on site, and Fox Country Properties is currently advertising the units, utilising our CGI images which give a photo-realistic picture of the final product.
We have worked on many barn conversion schemes over the last 30 years with Lychgate Homes. It’s safe to say that the finished build at this site will be of very high quality to create a fantastic development in the countryside.
