The agenda is embedded here, below. You will see that the company running the alpaca business in Wellow is yet again seeking planning permission. More planning woes for Wellow. This time there are two applications:
AGN/30601/T, P/01423/15
Agricultural Prior Notification for extension to existing barn to include installation of mezzanine floor to form incubator room. A number of residents have been puzzled about this application and the short period allowed for comments. If you click on the application numbers above the IW Council Planning Dept page related to this will open in a new tab. West Wight Alpacas Limited has applied for a special privilege called "Permitted Development Rights" to allow them to extend their large barn both in terms of its size and its usage, to include the rearing of poultry and a new incubator room. Normally this privilege is only available to farmers who meet a stringent list of conditions. One such condition makes it inadmissible to claim Permitted Development Rights if there are livestock in the building and the building is within 400 metres (around 440 yards) of a dwelling. The owners of West Wight Alpacas Limited actually live on the site just 30 metres (around 33 yards) from the owners' dwelling. It is not clear why this application is still on the Isle of Wight Council website. For clarity, this is the site view from Google Earth showing the direct line from the barn to the mobile home which they are living in. In any case it clearly shouldn't qualify as a "Permitted Development" and looks highly questionable whether it should obtain Full Planning.
TCP/30601/U, P/01424/15
Proposed extension to form canopy covered seating area proposed childrens play area with associated equipment external lighting
This application is open for comments until 14th January. There is very much more to this than meets the eye. The covered eating area would be doubled, in round numbers, from the area they have today while it seems that no additional toilet facilities are provided and are arguably well below the legal number required. The directors of West Wight Alpacas Limited have stated in previous planning applications that they have 10,000 visitors per annum before any extra numbers that may result from this extension. There is no mains sewer through Wellow and septic tanks serving properties to the south of Main Road have to have their septic tank effluent drainage field pumped far back away from the public road. From past planning documents submitted by the developers at West Wight Alpacas Limited the septic tank they installed is very close to the road and they have not declared any effluent pump-off or even run-off farther back. It would need to go back into parts of the land presently used for livestock, it would seem. This sewage water isn't going to just 'disappear'. It has to go somewhere. The land is shallow topsoil over clay which is impervious to water. No mention is made anywhere in this proposal to the environmental consequences.
There is also the light pollution from all the external luminaires surrounding the proposed seating and play area plus the light that would come from the new covered and illuminated seating area they are applying for in the same proposal. The consequences for 'Dark Skies' needs to be evaluated yet no mention of any technical evaluation is given. The developers talk about 'LED' lighting as if LEDs are low-intensity. They are not. Even my pocket torch is bright enough to blind temporarily if shone into the eyes and is marketed as a deterrent to assault so far from being low-power LEDs these days are very bright and powerful.
Other forms of environmental pollution include noise up to late at nights (according to other planning applications being submitted), cooking smells (residents have already made a public complaint about the cooking smells with the present extent of the operation), extra run-off onto a road already very prone to flash-flooding and especially "Lime Barn" and "Marshfield" which are directly opposite the West Wight Alpacas development. Incidentally, it can be revealed that the owners of West Wight Alpacas have been professional property developers for over fifteen years on the Isle of Wight so it's not surprising they are focussing their experience of developing agricultural land into residential and business land.
If, like many Wellow residents, you think that 'Enough is Enough' and that West Wight Alpacas has gone far enough, please make your comments on the Isle of Wight Council Planning Department - click on the two links above and it should be clear how to place your comments online. Alternatively you can write to the Planning Department using good old 'snail-mail'. In any case please try to come to the next Shalfleet Parish Council meeting this coming Wednesday where you can have your say; the parish councillors DO listen. We need to go to the meetings to show them just how much we care and give them our points of view.
Shalfleet Parish Council Meeting Wednesday 13th January at Newbridge parish office 1000. Agenda below:
