Plans to convert a garage into tourist accommodation were refused after a planning officer said the applicant couldn't apply to change the use of a building that doesn't have planning permission.

Mike Eardley applied to Cheshire East Council for permission to change the use of a garage and workshop at Higher Kinderfields Farm, Sutton, into five accessible tourist units.

But Cheshire East's planning officer says the building currently constructed on the site does not conform with the 2017 permission the council granted for a garage and store – a claim strongly disputed by the applicant's agent at Wednesday's meeting of the northern planning committee.

Referring to the current garage building, planning officer Paul Wakefield told the meeting: "There's clearly been discrepancies between what's been approved and what's been constructed and that's why we're not satisfied that the building that's been constructed on site is the building that was approved in 2017."

Mr Wakefield said the dimensions of the existing building were different from that approved.

He later told councillors: "Because there's no permission for the building that stands there, they can't apply to change its use."

The applicant's agent, Joe Mattin, told the committee: "The building is exactly the building which was approved in 2017. We've measured it several times. We've overlaid survey plans and original application plans."

He said the change of use was needed because of the decline of dairy farming.

"The situation is very bleak for our client, who was a dairy farm engineer, and 70% of Cheshire farms have failed in the last decade," Mr Mattin told the committee.

"Your policies, like government policies, are to support diversification and produce a prosperous rural economy. Your policies are to improve tourists' access to the countryside."

He added: "So we would argue strongly that this application should be approved. It's unsafe to say it's not the same building. It was visited by your officers post 2017 when it was being constructed, no comment was made about it being in the wrong place.

"So the reasons for approval will be to support the rural economy, to support diversification of agriculture and to support, basically, the livelihood of a farm engineer whose business is now ruined by the collapse of the dairy industry."

Wilmslow councillor David Jefferay (Ind) said he was struggling to understand how there could be such a discrepancy in measurements.

"Do you have evidence to back up your claims like the applicant has provided?" he asked the planning officer.

Mr Wakefield replied: "All we've got is the approved plans and that's enough for us. We measured the plans, they're drawn to scale, the height's probably about the same, so there's no scaling issue. It's literally the building measures 50% less than what's constructed on site."

Macclesfield councillor Nick Mannion (Lab) said: "We need to determine whether the economic tourism benefits outweigh the harm to the amenity and I'm not convinced."

He moved the application be refused.

Cllr Liz Braithwaite (Macclesfield Central, Lab) seconded the refusal and said: "We're being asked to consider a change of use for a building which shouldn't be there. I have no problem is supporting the officer's recommendation for refusal."

The application was unanimously refused on the grounds the building currently on site does not conform with the 2017 planning permission and therefore the policy relating to the re-use of existing rural buildings is not relevant and that the proposed development will have an adverse impact upon the residential amenity of Kinderfields Edge and of Higher Kinderfields Farmhouse in relation to noise and disturbance.

See Also: Zero carbon-emission pizza delivery comes to Macclesfield

Browse events going on in town on our Macclesfield What's On section.

Macclesfield: Have you signed up for our FREE Friday weekly newsletter? It contains each week's top five Macclesfield news stories, and one EXCLUSIVE article?

Simply enter your email address on this link.

Free from pop-up ads, or unwanted surveys, Macclesfield Nub News is a quality online newspaper for our town.

You can find us on Facebook and Twitter.