A DECISION is to be made on an application to convert a set of barns into six properties and renovate a vacant farmhouse.

Planning consent and listed building consent are both being sought for the planned work at Roosecote Farm, near Barrow.

The application for the site in Dungeon Lane is to be scrutinised by a meeting of Barrow Borough Council's planning committee on Tuesday.

A report produced by case officer Maureen Smith ahead of the meeting says the part of the farm covered by the applications includes a farmhouse, four 'historic farm buildings', and three modern, detached agricultural buildings, all to the west of Dungeon Lane, as well as a small area of land to the east of Dungeon Lane that is currently used as a yard. 

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"The farmhouse has been vacant for some time and is in a dilapidated condition [and is] currently boarded-up, whilst the historical farm buildings no longer meet modern farming requirements," she says.

"Consequently, the farm buildings within the application site no longer operate as a functioning farmstead and have become redundant, with the agricultural land comprising Roosecote Farm being leased to other farms.

"The applicant is therefore seeking permission to bring the buildings back into beneficial use."

The original farmhouse on the site and two of the barns proposed for conversion are Grade II-listed. Two listed houses also lie to the north of the application area. 

Ms Smith says the farmhouse would be refurbished both internally and externally, with a new roof and replacement windows and doors added, and a stone-clad garage built.

"The barn conversions utilise existing openings where possible, including some larger openings being filled with glazed elements," she says. 

"The conversion will also include the recovering of the roofs with natural slate and the repointing of the existing masonry walls."

Ms Smith concludes that the proposal would secure 'the long-term future of the historic listed buildings while improving their setting'.

"No objections have been received from any heritage bodies," she says.

She recommends that a decision on the application, which was submitted by A. Gibb, of Holker Estates, be delegated to the borough council's head of development management 'since there are some minor outstanding matters around window detailing and waste storage'.