Planning permission is sought for five four-bedroom houses in the place of barns on a Jacobstowe farm.

The proposal is to build at Higher Stockbeare on a 0.6 hectare site which is part of a working farm.

Barns on the site already have permission under a Class Q permission which allows them to be converted into dwellings.

However this application, 3719/22/FUL, proposes demolishing these barns to make way for the detached houses, a move which requires planning permission from WDBC.

A statement from a planning consultant said: ‘The rationale behind replacing the barn conversions with purpose-built dwellings is to make optimum viable use of the site and present a more coherent image of the site that makes a positive contribution over and above the Class Q approval which has very limited scope to improve the architectural character of the site.’

The applicants, who live on the site, are arguing that the new homes would be more sustainable and have fewer carbon emissions over their lifetime than the barns occupied as dwellings. What is being proposed are four-bedroom houses which will be built, says the applicants, using materials in keeping with the area.

A planning statement said: ‘The proposed arrangement of each dwelling will be around a shared central access road with rear gardens overlooking countryside. This will allow each property to not overlook or overshadow each other.

‘Each property will be served by off-street parking for two plus cars. Separate amenity and privacy can easily be achieved, with low impact fencing proposed to separate the side rear of the plots.

‘The proposal are two storey buildings which will each measure 7.8 metres long by six metres wide. An additional 2.4 metre square area to the rear for garage is proposed.’

Meanwhile, in Lifton, Darren Henry has applied to extend his workshop at the Autospray Bodyshop Centre, Tinhay Mill Industrial Estate at Tinhay, 0275/23/FU, with a new spraying bay, to be built by infilling part of the yard at the back of the premises.sed demand.

And in Buckland Monachorum, 0458/23/HHO, a 20 ground-mounted solar panels on two frames of ten to in the garden at Summerleads, Crapstone Road, Yelverton.

Comments are invited on the application by June 1. And in Okehampton, a risky tree with a TPO on it to be removed at 10 Kestrel Close, Okehampton, 1474/23/TPO.

The oak tree is said to be ‘a poor specimen’ which is a potential risk to nearby properties.