Policy HO5 Agricultural, Forestry, and Other Occupational Dwellings in the Countryside

Proposals for development in the Countryside to meet the housing needs of full-time workers in agriculture, forestry and other essential workers connected with that land will be permitted only where they comply with the following criteria:

• there is a demonstrated essential need for one or more full time workers to be readily available at most times for the enterprise to function properly; and
• the functional need could not be met by another existing dwelling on the site of the enterprise or in the immediate vicinity; and
• the enterprise has been established for at least three years and is, and should remain, financially viable; and
• the proposal does not represent a replacement of another dwelling on the site that has been sold on the open market in the last five years; and
• the proposed dwelling is no larger than that required to meet the functional needs of the enterprise, nor would it be unusually expensive to construct in relation to the income that the enterprise could sustain in the long term.

Where accommodation is required in relation to a newly created enterprise where there has been insufficient time to demonstrate financial soundness, permission may be granted for a temporary dwelling in the form of a caravan or wooden structure which can easily be dismantled and removed from the site.