Councillors have blocked a young couple’s plan to build a log cabin on their farmland because it is in the green belt — at the same time as the council plans hundreds of homes just down the road.

Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee voted to refuse Clutton woman Laura Dagger three-year temporary planning permission for a single storey log cabin at her land on the village’s Lower Bristol Road. Council officers said the log cabin would be “inappropriate development in the green belt” as there was no business plan to show why it was needed.

The refusal on Wednesday (September 30) comes at the same time as the council often struggles to turn down applications for large housing developers due to its high housing target. It is currently proposing allocating space in the village for 330 homes to be built in its new local plan, despite local opposition.

One Clutton resident of 40 years said in a comment lodged in support of Ms Dagger’s log cabin: “We have seen some horrendous and monstrous developments go up, however this log cabin is something that we feel very strongly should be supported and allowed.”

The applicants said they had not been able to find anywhere affordable locally to live and wanted to live by their new agricultural business. Their agent told Wednesday’s planning committee: “This is not a speculative housing development. It is a modest temporary proposal for a young local couple who want to establish a small-scale agricultural exercise on land immediately adjacent to existing housing.”

Planning committee member Paul Crossley (Southdown, Liberal Democrat) said: “We should be looking at how we support these small businesses, how we encourage the growth of food in this country — I think it’s going to be an important thing going forward in a global insecurity.”

Shaun Hughes (Midsomer Norton North, Independent Group) said: “I would happily support any rural business if there were one to support. But I can’t see one here to support. There is no business currently.”

There is an exemption under planning rules which allows necessary accommodation for farm workers to be built in the green belt, but council officers said the applicants had repeatedly failed to prove it was needed. Toby Simon (Bathwick, Liberal Democrat) said the plans were a “near miss” of the council’s policies and should be approved anyway, but was outvoted by the committee.

Clutton is one of several villages in North East Somerset which could grow considerably under the new local plan, a major document which sets out where future housing developments should go. Bath and North East Somerset’s mandatory housing target was doubled in 2024 to around 27,340 and, to hit that target, the council administration has allocated huge areas of North East Somerset for development.

The council says that Bath can only take about a quarter of the homes since its UNESCO World Heritage Site status prevents it from expanding. The city could now drop the status temporarily in order to build suburbs.

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