A couple who successfully converted an old railway carriage into a luxury holiday let – 7 nights from £1,339 says one advert – have applied for retrospective planning consent to keep it. Andrea Pearman has appointed Parker Planning Services Ltd to regularise planning consent for their unusual holiday let which they opened a year ago.
Ms Pearman, and her partner, began work on the project last summer and attracted national publicity with their venture, Andrea describing how getting the carriage to their land was a “tight fit through the village and around the tight windy roads”.
Now they need to persuade East Cambridgeshire District Council planners that the railway carriage holiday home at Commrooks Farm, Straight Drove, Coveney near Ely can operate with the benefit of planning permission.
“Amazing place. The carriage is beautiful so much nicer in real life than the pictures show. The surroundings are beautiful and peaceful” One recent holidaymaker’s experience of staying in the converted railway carriage near Ely.
Parker Planning, acting on their behalf, told the council that they are hoping to achieve “retrospective planning permission for the siting of a railway carriage and conversion into 2no. holiday lets.
“The proposal represents an opportunity to create sustainable, rural development for tourism. The site is considered to be sustainable on account of its relative proximity to the city of Ely which provides a variety of services, facilities, and attractions. The proposal is considered to be acceptable in all technical aspects such as design, amenity impact and highway safety and parking in accordance with local and national planning policy.
“On this basis, the proposal is considered to be acceptable and should accordingly be recommended for approval on this basis”. Parker Planning says the holiday let is “of an appropriate scale and nature relative to its location and would not (by itself or cumulatively) have a significant adverse impact in terms of the amount and nature of traffic generated”.
They add that the site “would appeal to people with an equine interest given the presence of horses on site. Additionally, the site offers a number of attractive walks in the surrounding area that would be appealing to people wishing to stay there.
“The applicant wishes to provide high quality unique tourism accommodation and offers the opportunity for ‘Horsie Holidays’, but this is purely limited to visitors bringing their own horse and keeping it within the Paddock Land adjacent to the Railway Carriage.
“Given the scale of the tourism accommodation on offer, the visitors and Horsie Holidays will be on quite a limited and low-key basis. The guests with their own horses will then be able to ride and practice in the paddock and go out on suitable walks and hacks with their own horse.
“One half of the railway carriage is dog friendly and given the land on site and around the area, this is a highly attractive area for people to bring their dogs.”
