2500508PP - Clauchlands House Clauchlands Road, Lamlash
North Ayrshire Council · 28 January 2026
Back to Planning Committee — 28 January 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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NORTH AYRSHIRE COUNCIL Planning Committee Locality Isle of Arran Reference 25/00508/PP Application Registered 4th November 2025 Decision Due 4th January 2026 Ward Arran Recommendation Approved with no Conditions __________________________________________________________________ Location Clauchlands House Clauchlands Road Lamlash Brodick Isle Of Arran North Ayrshire KA27 8LH Applicant Mrs Nan Reid Proposal Section 42 application to remove agricultural occupancy restriction under condition 1 of dwelling house granted under planning permission 01/00666/PP ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Description An application has been made to remove an agricultural occupancy restriction on a house which was granted by the Planning Committee under planning permission 01/00666/PP in 2002. Condition 1 was applied "that the occupation of the dwelling shall be limited to a person solely or mainly employed, or last employed, in the locality in agriculture as defined in Section 277 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 or in forestry, or a dependant of such a person residing with him or her, or a widow or widower of such a person." The house appears to have been occupied in accordance with the condition since then and this application has now been made to remove the occupancy restriction because of a change in personal and business circumstances.
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Section 42 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, as amended, applies to
applications for planning permission for the development of land without complying with
conditions subject to which a previous planning permission was granted. It allows that the
planning authority shall consider only the question of the conditions subject to which
planning permission should be granted, and if they decide that planning permission should
be granted subject to conditions differing from those subject to which the previous
permission was granted, or that it should be granted unconditionally, they shall grant
planning permission accordingly.
Checks have been carried out with Legal Services to confirm that no corresponding legal
agreements (e.g. Section 75) were entered into at the time and that only the planning
condition itself is therefore now at question.
Clauchlands Farm is sited 1km northeast of the settlement of Lamlash. The detached one
and a half storey house is sited approximately 115 metres southeast of the main grouping of
farmyard buildings. It was built by Stuart Reid, the current farmer, when he took over
operation of the farm business from his father in the early 2000's.
The three-bedroom single storey building is of simple rectangular plan form with a footprint
of some 153m2 and is of traditional design and finishes featuring pitched dormers to the
front roof slope. It shares the main farm access road which leads from Clauchlands Road at
the south and is otherwise bounded by agricultural land within the farm.
The applicants are the current farmer and his wife who have applied for discharge of the
condition on the following grounds:
- Changes in the business. When permission was granted to build Clauchlands
House, the main part of the business was as a dairy farm supplier to the Torrylinn Creamery.
Since the Creamery closed in 2019, the dairy business has reduced, much of the herd has
been sold and staff made redundant due to the reduced workload.
- Due to the imminent retiral of the applicants from the farm business, the future is
uncertain and if the condition were removed, then its occupation by the current owners
could continue occupation even were they no longer involved in the operation of the farm.
- The applicants do not consider that there would be any amenity issues arising from
the removal of the occupancy restriction. All of the three houses on the farm are currently
owned by the family.
The application site is located within the countryside, as identified in the adopted North
Ayrshire Local Development Plan ("the LDP") and is unaffected by any site-specific policies
or proposals therein. The relevant policies in the LDP to houses in the countryside are
Strategic Policy 1: the Countryside Objective and Strategic Policy 2: Placemaking.
A similar agricultural occupancy was previously removed from Clauchlands Cottage No.3 in
2019 (19/00573/ALO) immediately following the closure of the Torrylinn Creamery for
similar reasons as farm staff were initially released from employment. Removal of a similar
occupancy tie in a Section 75 legal agreement on the house built by the original farmer, Alex
Reid and c.195m west of this approval was also previously approved by the planning
committee in March 2024.Page 3
2. Consultations and Representations There was no statutory requirement for neighbour notification or other publicity given the remoteness of the location and the surrounding land all being in the ownership of the applicants. The application was displayed on the Council's online planning portal. No public comments or objections have been received, and no consultations were required. 3. Analysis Essentially, the proposal is to allow permanent occupation of a house already in-situ given changes in circumstances and that it is no longer required by employees of the farm. Removal of the condition would allow occupation by family members not involved in the business and would also potentially allow the property to be sold or let on the open market if it were no longer connected to agricultural operations at the farm. These aspects of the proposal require to be considered in terms of Strategic Policy 1: the Countryside Objective and Strategic Policy 2: Placemaking in the adopted Local Development Plan. Strategic Policy 1 accepts new development in the countryside which is ancillary to existing rural uses and the house was initially justified and approved in these terms as being intended to support the existing farm operation. The policy does not specifically address a change in circumstances such as is requested here. In terms of the requested removal of the occupancy condition, the following points are considered to be material: (i) Since it was initially built over 20 years ago, the house has been occupied in association with the rural business against which it was justified. (ii) The agricultural unit continues to operate at this time but there have been significant developments in the dairy business outwith the applicants' control, ie. the loss of the previous main client, Arran Creamery. The applicants have since erected holiday let chalets as a diversification of the business (19/00019/PP) and so have continuing interest at the farm outwith primary agriculture. (iii) Since the time of the original approval, Scottish Government advice, in a 2011 letter from the Chief Planner to local authorities, indicates that little weight should now be afforded to the use of occupancy conditions for housing in the countryside. Instead, the planning considerations should focus on siting, design, environmental impacts, access etc. Requests to remove such occupancy restrictions should normally take into consideration: the time passed since the original restriction was imposed; the change in circumstances given as justification; consideration of any risks associated with removal of the restriction; difficulties caused by retention of the restriction, e.g. mortgage borrowing; and that the house is suitably sited and designed and provides a reasonable level of residential amenity. The house was granted in 2002 and was justified against the needs of the business at that time. The intervening changes to the farm business, outwith the applicants' control, are noted and it is accepted that circumstances have significantly changed in the years since
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the original condition was applied. It is therefore accepted that the house has been occupied in line with the agreement for a sufficiently long period following the imposition of the occupancy restriction and the condition has served its original purpose. Previous discussions with the applicant and the previous similar applications (19/00573/ALO) and 24/00114/ALO) outline the significant impact on the farm business of the closure of its main client, Arran Creamery, the circumstances of the farm business have changed, as has national planning policy and guidance or rural housing. The house is no longer required for occupation by farm workers, and it is therefore considered that the future of the existing farm unit would not be directly affected by the removal of the restriction. Taking all of the above into account, the proposal therefore accords with Strategic Policy 1. In terms of siting and amenity, the house provides a good level of residential amenity and outlook which would be unchanged by the requested removal of the occupancy restriction. It does not impact on the privacy or residential amenity of the other properties at the farm, which are 50 metres to the northeast and 190 metres to the northwest respectively. The house could be accessed independently of the working farm if required and the siting is therefore acceptable on its merits. Again, it is noted that Scottish Governments Chief Planner's advice on the desirability of avoiding occupancy restrictions, other than to guard against identified impacts on road safety, amenity etc. is a material planning consideration. For the reasons listed, the proposal also therefore complies with Strategic Policy 2: Placemaking in the LDP. The application has also been assessed against the approved National Planning Framework 4 and it has been determined that the proposal does not raise any significant strategic planning issues which conflict with the foregoing assessment. Taking all of these factors into consideration, it is considered that there is no longer a requirement to retain the occupancy restriction. It is therefore recommended that the occupancy restriction condition be removed. There is no accompanying legal agreement, as was sometimes entered into in similar cases and so no further actions by North Ayrshire Council would be required. The other planning conditions applied to 01/00666/PP related to drainage arrangements and finishing materials and were addressed at the time of construction and there is therefore no requirement to apply any conditions on this decision. 4. Full Recommendation Approved with no Conditions Allan Finlayson Chief Planning Officer For further information please contact Mr Neil McAteer Planning Officer on 07990 410884.