PEMBROKESHIRE Coast National Park has allowed a family to continue living in an outbuilding, occupied for more than two decades as a home, while the main farmhouse is used as an AirBnB holiday let.

Mr D Davies, through agent Ian Bartlett Planning and Architectural Services, sought permission for a certificate of lawfulness for the use of a building, The Stable, Chapel Farm, some 1km south of Newgale, as a dwelling house and associated land as a residential curtilage.

A certificate of lawfulness allows an applicant to stay at a development if they can provide proof of occupancy over a prolonged period.

A supporting statement said the former outbuilding and the farmhouse were located in a wider complex known as Chapel Farm, occupied as short term holiday accommodation: “The building has been occupied as a dwelling for a period in excess of four years and there has been defined associated residential curtilage in excess of 10 years”.

Conversion works to provide residential use, which started in 2002, were completed in 2004, with a small extension in 2017. The Farmhouse had been continuously used as an AirBnB holiday let, with the applicant and family living in The Stable.

An officer report said evidence showed The Stable “has been occupied continuously as an independent residential unit for more than four years prior to the application, with only a brief absence by the applicant during which family members maintained occupancy”.

It added: “The applicant also purchased the building outright in 2020, reinforcing the independent residential status. The building benefits from separate utility services, including individual Wi-Fi accounts and utility invoices addressed specifically to The Stable. The adjoining farmhouse, Chapel Farm, has been let commercially as short-term holiday accommodation during the relevant period, rendering it separate in both use and occupation.”

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The certificate of lawfulness was granted by park planners.