A COUPLE who were refused permission by national park planners to rebuild their burned out farmhouse can now go ahead after a planning inspector overturned the decision, reports Michaela Robinson-Tate.

John and Bridget Dean intend to start work later this year to restore the ruined Elizabethan farmhouse at Fell Edge, Crosthwaite, following their successful appeal.

They said they were very pleased with the inspector's decision, although they deplored the 12-month delay and the additional costs which they have incurred.

The Lake District National Park Authority's development control committee turned down the Deans' application to restore and rebuild the house last year. The fire, which reduced the property to a shell, happened in January 1992, but Mr Dean's elderly parents, who owned the house, had been so upset that they were unable to face up to the prospect of rebuilding.

At the time the committee was evenly split, and the chairman used his casting vote to turn down the application. He decided to uphold planning officers' advice, which was that the passage of time meant the application amounted to a new home in the open countryside.

However, planning inspector George Arrowsmith disagreed. He said that the "strong personal circumstances", which would have justified rebuilding soon after the fire, had not been significantly weakened by the passage of time. He also said the proposed rebuild was of a high standard of design.

Mr Dean told the Gazette that his parents had been elderly at the time of the fire, and that his mother developed Alzheimer's, making it impossible for him to mention the property.

He was delighted that the Gazette's original article and subsequent publicity had prompted more than 40 letters of support to be sent to the planning inspectorate at Bristol.

Mr and Mrs Dean intend to rebuild the house, and possibly retire there themselves. A local occupancy clause has now been included for people who live or work in the area.

Mr Dean said: "Obviously we are very pleased that we won the appeal but the fact the planners have dragged their feet on site inspections, and then refused permission, has wasted a year.

"It's taken a whole year plus quite a lot of money to get what we thought was a perfectly normal thing rebuilding a building that's burned down."

Mr Dean said they had had no objections from local people, and had in fact received a lot of support.

LDNPA spokesman Mick Casey said this week that the appeal decision would be presented to a future development control committee meeting, when members would have the opportunity to comment. He stressed that the authority had realised all the way along it was an extremely difficult decision, and one which had gone through on the "absolute narrowest of majorities".