A NEW cookery school at a Shaldon farm has taken the next step to becoming a reality as a change-of-use application is given the green-light.

Submitted by the Towill family, the application - reference 25/00858/FUL - sought permission to convert an agricultural building at New Barn Farm into a cookery school.

The application also included provision for accommodation, drainage and landscaping.

According to the planning statement, the change-of-use will provide ‘agricultural diversification in a manner that provides unique and innovative tourist accommodation in this rural area, which will in turn, serve to support the continued prosperity of the rural economy’.

‘Visitors to the cookery school will be journeying to the site to experience the agricultural setting and learn skills relating to produce from the agricultural business and surrounding businesses’, the planning statement goes on to say.

And Teignbridge District Council (TDC) have granted planning permission, albeit subject to conditions, chiefly the submission of further documentation such as a Construction Management Plan and a Landscape and Ecological Management Plan.

‘The development hereby permitted shall begin before the expiry of three years from the date of this permission’, TDC said in its decision notice, which was published on September 19.

The application received several contributions of support.

‘This application should be supported as diversification is essential for smaller farms to survive’, said one supporter.

‘The cookery school would create opportunities for local chefs, producers and suppliers, which is good for the community’, said another.

Shaldon Parish Council raised no objection to the application.

The Towill family have owned and run New Barn Farm since 1985, with the family having farmed in Ringmore since the early 20th century.

The change-of-use was inspired by the ‘field to fork’ concept which emphasises the journey of food from its origin (the field) to the consumer’s plate (the fork), highlighting the importance of understanding where food comes from and the process of getting it to the table.