Plans seeking the approval of changes made at a life skills centre and cookery school in Carmarthenshire, which Welsh ministers were keeping an eye on, have been turned down.
The application by food writer and cook Lisa Fearn aimed, according to a planning statement on her behalf, to “regularise a number of minor physical alterations” carried out at a converted barn at her home near Nantgaredig, in the Towy Valley.
Council planning officers rejected it on four grounds, including that there wasn’t enough information about potential impacts on road safety or the living conditions of nearby residents, particularly in relation to the use of a coffee area in the barn.
Mrs Fearn said she would now submit a new planning application.
“We are a small family business trying to make a living,” she said.
The project became the subject of legal proceedings two years ago when it emerged that the council had amended a previous planning approval decision relating to the scheme.
The amended decision was challenged by an objector via a judicial review, and the council agreed to a court order quashing it. The authority said there had been “some defects in the process”, and agreed to pay £24,000 in legal costs to the objector, who was the claimant in the case.
The upshot was that the original permission for the life skills centre and cookery school – plus visitor accommodation in a second barn – still applied, but further consent was needed because the layout of what was built and some external spaces differed to the original scheme.
Mrs Fearn’s application prompted letters of support from people saying how their children had learned all about healthy eating while on courses there, and that it was good to see a small business doing well in a rural area.
But concerns were raised about the operation and size of the coffee area, and about overlooking.
The Welsh Government, which had awarded Mrs Fearn a grant to refurbish the barns – to include the provision of an internet coffee shop – was asked to call in the application. Officials wrote to the council saying it could turn the application down but not grant permission.
The Welsh Government has also reviewed the grant approval and said it will let Mrs Fearn know the outcome.
Mrs Fearn said the family business now had two coffee shops in Carmarthen, employing 14 people, and was looking to open a third one.
“Despite very difficult circumstances, the business has come through and gone into new directions,” she said.
