AN APPLICATION for a new house on land at Illand near Coad’s Green has been approved by planning committee.

The outline proposal to build a house next to Illand Nurseries was submitted by Adrian Parsons, who serves as a councillor on the East Planning Committee and who had declared his interest, leaving the room as the application was discussed.

The site in question is a field on the edge of the hamlet, adjoined to the west by an existing house, and to the south by a minor road.

In 2023 Mr Parsons gained outline planning permission to replace a timber barn on the field with a dwelling. The principle of the development under discussion, said planning officers Josep Sandercock and Davina Pritchard, rested on there already being planning permission for a house on the field, and therefore that the second house could be classed as infill. The development as a whole would round off the settlement. Without the existing planning permission on the barn, the development could be viewed as extending into the open countryside.

Agent Moor Planning said that the new house would provide an important contribution to housing delivery. The single storey building would be a minor addition, wholly appropriate in scale to its surroundings.

The application had been supported by North Hill parish council.

The owner of the immediately neighbouring house had objected to the plan. He feared a loss of privacy and tranquility, and was concerned that a precedent could be set. He claimed that the barn was a “new structure” that had not been there prior to 2010 and while conversion of long-standing agricultural buildings had been permitted locally, the construction of new houses had not.

But in response, Mr Parsons said that the timber barn had replaced a much older stone barn which was visible on historic mapping, and which had been one of four stone buildings on the fields in the vicinity.

“It felt strange having a second homeowner who lives in the east of the country objecting to a local application, especially when local people need homes,” he said.