Plans for holiday homes and family home in Waytown withdrawn

A planning request for holiday homes at a West Dorset garden nursery site has been withdrawn from the council list.

The application had been for the part conversion of barns at Waycroft Nurseries, Slape Hill, Waytown, into six holiday homes with a new, separate, replacement family home.

Originally submitted in mid-May the application was for a 0.37 hectare site at the northern end of Waytown, just 350metres from the Hare and Houses pub, and within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Planning applications for the site over the years have included a farm shop which was later given permission to be converted into a home in October 2020; for an agricultural worker's house in the mid-1990s which was then released from the agricultural tie in 2019.

A planning agent said that it was this property which was being proposed for replacement as it had now reached the end of its functional life: "The proposed development provides a replacement family dwelling appropriate to the character of the area. This replaces a dwelling which is currently at detriment to the character of the area with limited architectural prowess and of simplistic form, essentially screened as a result of undergrowth that has been largely unmanaged. The existing dwelling has reached the end of its functional life and requires a replacement dwelling to satisfy the needs of modern-day functional living."

The agent also claimed that the barns had reached the end of their useful life and would be partly preserved by their conversion to holiday homes.

There is no explanation why the application, which had not attracted any formal public comments, has been withdrawn.