Villagers call on national park authority to take action after Minstead shop converted into home in breach of planning conditions

RESIDENTS in Minstead are demanding enforcement action is taken against the owner of the former village shop after he breached planning conditions to convert it into a home.

A group of campaigners, led by farmer Sue Cole, has slammed the national park authority for what they say is a failure to deal with the current owner of the property, Andy Simpson.

He ran part of the building as a shop and tearoom for two years before shutting in 2018.

The NPA conceded there had been a breach but said it would not be “expedient” to enforce the rules because a voluntary community shop had been set up in a disused store room at the nearby pub, the Trusty Servant Inn.

However, some locals have complained that penalises them for their efforts to support the village by launching the pop-up store.

Mr Simpson told the A&T he was “saddened” to have to close the shop, and that despite many attempts to engage with Mrs Cole in the past she had been unwilling to communicate with him.

Campaigners say they are now concerned that Mr Simpson will soon be protected from any potential enforcement if no action is taken by the planning authority within four years, under what is termed “deemed consent”.

“There is no suggestion of the current owner reopening a shop,” said Mrs Cole. “Our sole aim is that one day the shop may be returned to its historic location, and that when the property is sold it should still be as a commercial property, commanding an appropriate sale price.”

She added: “What’s worse is that the property has been listed on Airbnb.”

The community shop was, according to Mrs Cole, “at best a partial, temporary replacement” – but Minstead Parish Council said it “wholeheartedly” supported the facility and insisted it was not a temporary set-up.

“Especially given the very recent successful negotiation of a further five years’ lease of its premises,” said chair Cllr Bill Andrews.

Steve Avery, head of planning at the NPA, said the authority invited Mr Simpson to submit a retrospective application following his conversion of the shop premises, but he had declined.

“The authority recently agreed to review the decision not to take enforcement action,” he said. “But there was still no evidence to suggest that the new community shop was about to cease trading.

“Our view is that on any appeal against enforcement action, a planning inspector would most likely conclude that as there is a new shop successfully trading nearby, there would be no good planning reason for insisting that the residential use of the former shop should cease.”

Mr Simpson said that while he respected the feelings of villagers, these were not a “substitute for planning policy being correctly applied”.

“I have repeatedly asked Sue Cole over the last 12 months if we could meet to discuss her concerns but was ultimately told ‘there isn’t really anything for us to discuss’,” he said.

“Given the campaign’s refusal to listen, I am warmed by and would like to express my thanks for the wave of recent support that I have received from villagers who oppose the campaign.”