Rutland County Council has refused a planning application for a temporary workers' dwelling and separate agricultural building on land near Hambleton, submitted by T&S Rabbits.

The design for the proposed agricultural building was deemed by Planning Officers to be inconsistent with existing buildings or landscape features in the local area and would appear particularly prominent – causing significant harm to what is a sensitive and largely undeveloped landscape.

Without the agricultural building there would be no way of operating a commercial enterprise at the site and therefore no need for a workers' dwelling, as was also proposed.

Proposals for this development were also directly at odds with current local planning policy relating to the Rutland Water Area (Policy CS24). This states that any new development which is near to Rutland Water but falls outside of five clearly defined 'Recreational Areas' must be small-scale development for recreation, sport and tourism facilities.

Such development would also have to be considered critical for nature conservation, fishing or the essential operation of existing facilities.

Read more about the controversy surrounding T&S Rabbits here.

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