Doncaster Council has refused an application by Manor Farm in Conisbrough to convert two shipping containers into a café over concerns about its impact on green belt land.
The farm's proposal included indoor space for café tables, a small car park with 10 spaces and a WC, to be accessed by a pre-existing site entrance on Denbrook Lane. The containers would have been clad in redwood boarding.
Family farming heritage
In its application, Manor Farm said the enterprise would "help to protect the family's farming heritage" by offering an additional avenue of income. The farm has operated as a family-run business for generations and currently keeps livestock and sells produce including hay, eggs, vegetables and root crops.
The application described the café proposal as "purely a speculative venture" to determine whether it might provide a worthwhile supplement to existing farming income. It argued that additional traffic to the site would be "insignificant" and the visual impact of the structure "practically inconsequential" in relation to the farm's location.
Council's decision
Planning officers acknowledged the containers would be smaller in size and footprint than surrounding farm buildings. However, they ruled that the plans would cause "additional harm to the openness of the green belt", citing "its prominence in views from Clifton Hill and from the wider countryside due to local topography".
The council determined that despite the proposal respecting amenity and providing small economic benefits, these minor benefits did not "clearly outweigh the harm to the green belt by reason of inappropriateness and harm to openness". The council stated no "very special circumstances" existed to justify the development.