A PLANNING application that could mark a change in the way Hyndburn Council responds to agricultural applications is set to be considered this week.

Coun Tim O'Kane urged planners to be more farmer friendly when considering applications to replace unsightly or dilapidated agricultural buildings on green belt land.

He made his comments in support of a bid by Paul Starkie to pull down a rundown building and replace it with a house on land off Clayton Hall Drive, Clayton-le-Moors. At the last meeting of the development services committee, members were recommended to refuse the application.

But Coun O'Kane persuaded his colleagues to conduct a site visit.

Members will visit the site tomorrow morning ahead of the development services committee meeting later in the day.

Mr Starkie submitted the application unchanged last month, three months after it was originally rejected by councillors.

After the site visit, members will have to vote on the application, and are being recommended to refuse it. A report to members says it contravenes the council's greenbelt policy.

The current local plan, adopted in 1996, says that planning permission will not be granted except in exceptional circumstances for new buildings on green belt land, other than for agriculture, forestry, outdoor sport and cemeteries.

"The applicant has not put forward any very special circumstances to justify the proposal," the report says.

Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Friends of the Earth have also objected to the application saying it was contrary to the local plan.

After the last meeting Coun O'Kane said: "I don't see why you can't demolish a building and build within the footprint of it if you are a farmer and have ceased use of the building."

Mr Starkie said: "I just hope it goes our way. I still think common sense should prevail."