A COUNTY farmer’s appeal case to install a wheelchair adapted mobile home for his son was heard by a planning inspector.

Simon Cutter, who runs the Model Farm Shop in Hildersley, near Ross-on-Wye, had submitted plans to Herefordshire Council for his son George, who works there, to live onsite.

But council planners rejected the scheme last year because they deemed it to represent an unsustainable and unjustified residential development within the open countryside and contrary to the council’s core strategy.

Planning inspector Andrew Steen asked Mr Cutter what the reasons were for the housing need.

Mr Cutter explained that his home was 800 metres from the shop and that it would be much easier for his son if he lived on site.

He said: “He can get in a car, but to do so he has to park his wheelchair next to it, he then slides over into the seat, he has to dismantle his wheelchair and stow it away in the car. He has to take the wheels off, the seat out and it folds up.

“So, to get into the car it’s probably 10 or 15 minutes and then when he gets up to the shop he has to reverse all that for 10 to 15 minutes. If he has to pop up there to let the couriers in, it is almost half an hour for him which would be five minutes for us.”

Mr Cutter also said that the site had been targeted twice by burglars recently and it would be safer to have somebody on site.

“The farmhouse itself isn’t adapted for disabled living. It has a lift so he can go upstairs but none of the kitchen, fridges have been adapted. Whereas the caravan everything would be at low level and the storage is made for a wheelchair user.”

Carl Brace, council planning officer, explained that there was no national or local policy which would allow a housing development because of exceptional personal need.

“It is not a discriminatory policy, it’s just there is no exception policy in place at any level to allow that to be a caveat to the housing allocation and hierarchical approach that we adopt here, or any other authorities use, or the national planning policy framework uses.”

The inspector is expected to make a decision within weeks.