PLANS have been submitted for the demolition of a century-old Green Belt farm house at Croft, Warrington – and the construction of a new dwelling on the same site.
Benefice Farm, in Mill Lane is a nine-acre farm that has been farmed by the Monks family for more than 100 years. But the farmhouse is now in a deteriorating condition and uninhabitable, planning chiefs have been told. The whole of the site is in the Green Belt.
Planners have been told the family wish to return Beneficte Farm to a family home and agricultural smallholding. They wish to live on the site and operate it as a farm business, reinstating hedges and trees to create a wildlife habitat.
They have a great sentimental attachment to the existing farmhouse, but because of its condition can see the merit of replacing it with a more sustainable, yet sympathetic form that will allow the family to look after the farm for generations.
It is believed the existing farm has no proper foundations or damp-proof course. The existing building is in such a state of dilapidation that surveying it internally is not safe without costly repair and shoring works. The property is not habitable.
An earlier similar proposal was submitted in 2020 but was refused on the grounds the new building would be significantly larger than the original and, as such, would have an impact on the openness of the Green Belt.
