A developer has finally been granted planning permission to reinstate an abandoned farmhouse in a remote part of Carmarthenshire into a four-bedroom home. But the man, Paul Davies, claimed a requirement to pay an affordable housing contribution of nearly £28,000 had surfaced late in the planning process and he felt that it had tied his hands.
Mr Davies said he had even put the derelict house up for sale because of the affordable housing requirement, but he has now agreed to pay it. Mr Davies bought Blaenaufforest, south-east of Lampeter and west of the village of Ffarmers, in 2021. It came with 107 acres of land. He submitted plans to the county council to reinstate the old farmhouse, convert the adjacent outbuilding and link the two structures to create a four-bedroom home.
Planning officers turned down the application because they said evidence wasn't provided that the building, which appears on a map from 1887 and hasn't had a roof for more than 20 years, was "physically sound and substantially intact."
