A call to allow a static caravan to remain on agricultural land as accommodation for the applicants’ pilot daughter, and as AirBnB accommodation, has been turned down by Pembrokeshire planners.

In a retrospective application before Pembrokeshire County Council, Mr and Mrs Rees of Lands End, Cross Lane, Crundale, near Haverfordwest sought permission for an extension of the curtilage of the property and for ancillary accommodation, the caravan having been sited some 60 metres from the house in 2021.

A supporting statement through agent Harries Planning Design Management said: “This application seeks approval for one unit of ancillary accommodation to support their daughter who works as a pilot at the neighbouring airfield. Lands End is served by a small area of curtilage to the rear and side garden, with not enough space to provide any ancillary accommodation. Therefore, the unit would have to be placed outside of the existing curtilage.

“Additionally, her work pattern is scattered, working long hours frequently returning during the night and leaving early in the morning. Therefore, the choice to provide her accommodation down from the house also allows minimal disturbance to the occupants of the main dwelling during the night.

“Whilst not being occupied by their daughter the unit is being let out as AirBnB rent-a-room. As we are seeking to apply for residential use associated (and tied via planning condition) with the main farmhouse at Lands End, this would be in accordance with the AirBnB policies of renting a room within a dwelling’s curtilage.”

It said the unit “is sited away from any neighbouring dwellings, is well-screened from the main road by the strong existing roadside hedge,” and was “of modest scale and size” and would “introduce no greater impact than the existing dwelling at Lands End”.

The application was refused, following a planning officer recommendation, on the grounds including the caravan, sited on a hardstanding area some 60 metres from the applicants’ home, complete with its own amenities and services, is considered as an independent unit of accommodation.

It added: “The proposal does not relate to an enterprise for which a countryside location is essential and would introduce a new residential development, including for holiday use in an unsustainable location which is not within a settlement,” adding it would “result in unjustified visual encroachment into the countryside, and would not be of a nature which is compatible with the character of the site”.