Agricultural building conversion to house

[BecauseMyRingBurnsSheila]

Out of curiosity I'm interested in the whys and wherefores.

A farm with a few agricultural buildings has gained planning permission to convert them to buildings. The plans are literally converting the metal stores/barns into houses with floorplans and a few windows. These aren't wooden attractive 'barn conversions'. These are industrial estate style.

Another rural homeowner in the same borough but not the same area has been turned down for building stables because they are 'too attractive' and 'most people who build stables build functional ones with lower design input'. So it's been recommended for refusal pretty much for being rustic (think old fashioned barn conversion wooden design) and that it should be metal industrial looking.

Am I crazy to think there is absolutely no value aesthetically to keep/encourage the building of industrial metal warehouse type buildings? That they aren't in keeping with the countryside from a 'bits that make the countryside worth looking at' perspective. Allowing the building of new wooden rustic ones as stables and knocking down (but keeping the same footprint) metal ones and replacing with attractive new buildings/wooden rustic ones would surely make the countryside view much more attractive/improved. Or is it just me?

I guess the argument would be that utilitarian buildings that have a purpose are important rather than “prettifying” or “cutesyfying” agriculture.
The stable is leisure not agriculture so... maybe a pretty high-end building is more likely to be converted into house / self catering, some reasoning like that?

Is the conversion linked to "essential dwelling" for farm workers to live in?

@Saz12

I guess the argument would be that utilitarian buildings that have a purpose are important rather than “prettifying” or “cutesyfying” agriculture. The stable is leisure not agriculture so... maybe a pretty high-end building is more likely to be converted into house / self catering, some reasoning like that?

That was my thought but the planning report couldn't overtly accuse the landowner of that.

@RandomMess

Is the conversion linked to "essential dwelling" for farm workers to live in?

Definitely not. There's other houses built as houses reasonably locally which were essential dwellings with those conditions.

I love these industrial type converted barns , done well they are very spacious , light and airy , I like the modern look , the bold use of lots of glass metal and other architectural materials
I don't overly like the traditional cart barn type conversions , they can be dark and pokey often are listed and dark , just not my taste but suit a lot of people that do like their look.
The reason the modern barns ( and the old cart barns ) are getting planning or more likely change of use into dwellings is because we have a shortage of housing and the planning laws were updated a number of years ago to make it easier to get these type of buildings converted for dwelling purposes
Stables on the other hand are used for pleasure activities and different councils have differing views on planning being granted, it is a lot harder to get planning on an equestrian arena than say 10 years ago , I'm surprised they turned them down purely because they were 'too pretty' though

Could the ones that have been converted have Chad class Q planning permission?

I like - and think there's a place for - both, but do think that in some areas there's a movement away from the cutesy, rustic look.

We have an old - non-listed - mill and a couple of years back fitted some arched timber gates into an original arched opening in the stone boundary wall to the front elevation. It's as they would have been years ago - I've seen historic pics of the property from the 1920s which show similar. The first comment we had - from a (non-local, holidaying in the area) farmer - was that it all looked a bit "twee" 🙄

Otoh, some friends locally put in a planning application for a new build eco house in the 50+ acre grounds of their family's new build Mc Mansion and were turned down. They've had to build something more traditional...and twee, lol!