Cumbria Rural Planning Facilitation Service Case Study: Peter Toaig Furniture

Background to business and property

Peter Toaig has run a successful furniture-making business from a rented workshop base in Stirling since 1998. He and his partner decided to move south into Cumbria last year. They wanted to buy a property with potential for investment and development, not only as a workshop for Peter’s own work, but also with space for him to run specialist woodworking courses on site.

They moved into Butterwick Crag Farm, about 6 miles from Penrith, in October 2007 and Peter then began the process of converting the adjoining barn into business premises.

Contact with CREA Planning Adviser

Peter learnt about the Service via a Cumbria Woodlands contact and met with Planning Adviser, Len Cockcroft, early in the process (September 2007), before he and his partner had even moved into the farmhouse.

Outcomes from RPFS process

“Discussions with Len gave me the confidence to go ahead with the project as his advice was that my plans and ideas should be feasible in planning terms. He gave me a good understanding of the process and the stages that I’d need to go through and he was also able to highlight the various policies that were likely to be relevant to my application.”

Peter Toaig

Factors that Len advised needed to be considered and covered in Peter’s planning application included:

• Development in Quieter Areas
• Development in the Open Countryside
• Landscape Character.

He also needed to explain the contribution of his development to:

• Promoting Sustainable Economic Growth
• Diversification of the Rural Economy
• Development to Sustain Rural Communities.

Impact and broader benefits

On Len’s advice, Peter made an early contact with the Highways Agency to discuss access and traffic and was able to build their advice into his planning application.

He submitted his application in November 2007, hoping for a decision before Christmas. However, at a final stage, he was asked to provide an acoustic survey to back up his application. This proved difficult as such a survey requires reasonable air temperatures and dry weather, which tend to be mutually exclusive in Cumbrian winter months. With some careful negotiation, Peter was able to obtain the necessary reassurances from an acoustics expert and his application was passed at the end of February.

Peter and his builder, Nigel Strong of Pooley Bridge, are now working to complete key aspects of the work before the end of June and Peter hopes to host his first workshops in September 2008. This business growth should have a positive impact on local accommodation providers too as Peter plans to run the workshops outside of peak holiday seasons and to encourage participants to use local facilities.

NB Peter Toaig has subsequently had support via the Rural Small Building Grant Scheme, also administered by CREA, to fund 19% of the costs of his initial building conversion work.

Click here for the rural small buildings grant case study