Lyndon Hawkins wanted to divide the outbuilding used as a workshop into two holiday lets, but his plans have been knocked back by plannersJonathon Hill News reporter, Twm Owen and Local Democracy Reporter
15:34, 13 Aug 2025Updated 16:33, 13 Aug 2025
A bid to convert this shed, that runs for eight metres from end to end, into two holiday lets has been refused(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
A homeowner has had his plans to rent out a huge shed in his garden to tourists refused by local and national planners. Lyndon Hawkins sought to split the outbuilding which he built in 2020 outside his home at Pen Y Wern Road, Penperlleni, Monmouthshire, which currently serves as a workshop and storage space, into two holiday lets.
But earlier this year his plans were rejected by Monmouthshire County Council’s planning department, leading to him appealing to Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW).
He told PEDW that an outbuilding had existed within the grounds of his semi-detached property for 70 years and submitted an ordnance survey map from 1971 clearly displaying a structure there. Love dreamy Welsh homes? Sign up to our newsletter here
He also supplied independent inspector Zoe Baxter, who was appointed by PEDW to examine the appeal, with Google Street View photographs from 2009 and 2011 showing an outbuilding next to the southwestern boundary of his garden.
But Ms Baxter decided the planning consent, approved by Monmouthshire County Council in 2020 for reconstructing the outbuilding, proved it was of a “slightly different shape and position within the site” despite being of a similar size to the earlier building.
Consequently she determined the original outbuilding “no longer exists” and had been replaced with the structure approved in 2020.
Her report concluded the council was correct to reject planning permission in accordance with its policy on converting buildings in the countryside for residential use.
The policy stipulates that buildings must have been utilised for their intended purpose “for a significant period of time” and asserts that “particularly close scrutiny will be given to proposals relating to those less than 10 years old, especially where there has been no change in activity on the unit”. Mr Hawkins’ outbuilding was just five years old at the time of the appeal.
Pen Y Wern Cottage in Penperlleni where it was intended to convert a shed into holiday lets(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
Ms Baxter’s report indicated that the building was still being used for storage and as a workshop when she visited on May 1.
She clarified that the 10-year guideline is designed to prevent individuals from obtaining planning permission for new buildings for a permitted purpose, only to then seek to convert the use to one that isn’t typically allowed.
In her report, she said: “Although I am not suggesting this is the case in the scheme before me, Policy H4(e) seeks to prevent applicants circumventing the strict control over development in the countryside by acquiring planning permission on the basis a new building will be used for a purpose which complies with countryside policy but intending to convert it to purpose that would not.”
She also noted that Mr Hawkins had not provided adequate details regarding the proposed private drainage system and how it would handle wastewater effluent or organic materials discharging directly or indirectly into the catchments of the rivers Usk and Wye.
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