PLANS to create four homes on a farm site near the home of the Glastonbury Festival have been submitted.

Wellhayes Farm, in Lower Westholme near Pilton, has applied to Somerset Council for permission to redevelop two barns into four, four-bedroom properties.

The buildings were formerly used as storage spaces for a marquee business which is no longer based at the farm, where the farm owners and applicants live.

“Wellhayes Farm is a former pig farm that was converted into a site for a marquee business in 2007,” it said.

“The applicants purchased both the farmhouse and adjacent outbuildings in March 2007 and started running their successful marquee business from the site.

“The applicants are now looking to provide a new use for the site as the marquee business is no longer based on the site.”

The proposed layout of the yard at Wellhayes Farm, near Pilton. Picture: Orme/Somerset Council

The scheme would see a change of use for the current buildings, from ‘ancillary domestic storage’ to ‘residential’ to allow their renovation into three single-storey and one two-storey property.

“The applicant no longer has the marquee business and does not require the vast area for domestic storage, therefore a new use for the site must be established and applied for,” the application went on.

“There is no option for another marquee company using the site, as the applicant lives in the farmhouse directly adjacent to the site, and the dwelling also shares a private driveway with the site.”

The plans say the redevelopment of the buildings would “provide an enhancement and benefit to the immediate setting for the neighbouring residential dwellings, as well as the wider landscape”.

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“The hard landscaped area of the site would be improved with some soft landscaping to improve surface water run off and improve biodiversity on the site,” it added.

Design of the homes would be “more in-keeping with the direct neighbouring properties”.

The application said: “The buildings are fairly modern in style and are not of any grand traditional style, however, the designs of the conversions have been kept modest to reflect the rural location.”

Proposed elevations of plots 1 and 2 on the site at Wellhayes Farm, Pilton. Picture: Orme/Somerset Council

The structures would not need to be rebuilt, or require major reconstruction, it added, with the floors, walls and roofs being insulated.

“The existing buildings will be converted into four dwellings, which will provide suitable and sustainable accommodation for modern family living,” the plan added.

“Residential use on the site is beneficial to the neighbouring properties and will provide an overall improvement to the area.”

Access would be through a shared drive running down the centre of the site, maintaining a “traditional rural courtyard/farmyard layout”.

Somerset Council planners will now consider the scheme.

For more details, and to comment on the plans, log on to somerset.gov.uk and search for application reference 2023/1932/FUL.