The plans were submitted by renowned interior designer Jonathan Reed, who moved to Wood End with husband Graeme Black, an artist, to run an environmental landscape management enterprise.
Work has already taken place to convert farm buildings into a gallery/studio for arts and crafts, and the application is part-retrospective.
Two new buildings containing a workshop, staff accommodation and three short-stay visitors’ units have also been proposed, along with landscaping work.
Supporting the application, committee member Yvonne Peacock said at the meeting on Tuesday that the scheme “ticked all the boxes” by generating employment for local people and bringing new people into the dales.
She added: “It’s such a win-win situation.
“This is about employment. How many times in our (national park) management plan, our local plan, do we talk about employment?
“Sometimes the problem with employment is getting it in the right setting, but this employment would be in the perfect landscape setting.
“It’s bringing different people with different ideas to our dales.”
Committee member David Ireton also supported the application, saying it was an opportunity to provide employment and a tourist attraction in that area.
Steve Shaw-Wright said it was an innovative project that would “bring a different set of people” into the area.
But committee member Allen Kirkbride said he could not support the application.
“If this had been a farming application, it wouldn’t have got past the first hurdle,” he said.
“This has been done without planning permission and I don’t like the idea of applications coming when half the work’s been done.”
The meeting heard that the application had the support of Bainbridge Parish Council.
The Friends of the Dales group objected to the application however, describing the scheme as “tantamount to the construction of new dwellings in open countryside”.
The decision in favour of the application was taken after members of the planning committee held a site visit after concerns about the development were raised at a previous planning committee meeting.
The latest meeting heard the applicant had taken part in the site visit, which was against YDNPA rules and should not have happened.
Other Articles
No Comment! Be the first one.