Owners tried to deliberately conceal house as a 'tractor shed'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

The owners of a Dartmoor house, which planning officers claim was 'deliberately hidden', have been told they must stop living in it.

The building only has permission to be used as a tractor shed. Dartmoor National Park Authority has decided to use a strong Planning Enforcement Order (PEO) for the first time to demand that the building at South Tawton is no longer used as a home, DevonLive reports.

A meeting of the authority's development management committee heard that the owner of the building at Black Street Farm had hidden its use as a home since 2017 when it only had permission as an agricultural building. READ MORE: Today's top Manchester Evening News stories READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community In the past, they could have continued living in it if enforcement action had not been taken within four years, but powers introduced in 2011 now mean councils can take action.

Planning officer James Aven explained that permission was granted in 2007 for a tractor shed, but half of the building had since been used as an 'unauthorised dwelling house.' The national park authority found out about this in July 2021, at which point the owner said it had been occupied since 2017, crossing the four-year threshold.