The planning department at Swindon Borough Council has given with one hand – and taken away with another.

The owners of Grove Farmhouse, at the end of Grove Cottages and now adjacent to the new houses recently built on William Morris Way, want to convert three agricultural buildings on the site into three holiday cottages and a residential home.

The farm buildings are not listed, but the farmhouse is a Grade-II listed building – so two applications per barn were needed: one special listed building consent for the conversion and a change of use application to allow agricultural buildings to be used for holiday lets and as a home.

Swindon Borough Council planners approved the conversion, with the decision made a few weeks ago.

But after that, the planners refused the change of use applications for all three buildings.

The plans were to convert an L-shaped barn in a state of poor repair adjacent to the main house into two single-storey one-bed cottages with a bathroom and open plan kitchen and living area each.

A very small, single-story structure, called the small barn was also earmarked as holiday accommodation. The approved plan shows a mezzanine bedroom could be constructed in the roof above a single open-plan kitchen and living room.

And planners also approved the conversion of a much larger building - The Hallett - into a two-bedroomed house, with what is now a tractor shed used as a kitchen, and the main barn as living space with a hayloft upper storey divided into two bedrooms and a bathroom.

But the stumbling block comes with the proposed use as either a home or holiday cottages.

The location of the farmhouse is an issue, although very close to houses in Tadpole Garden Village, it’s only accessible from the narrow lane of Grove Cottages.

The planners said: “The proposed development for holiday accommodation/residential in this countryside location would be unacceptable in principle, given its unsustainable location, lack of access to sustainable transport modes, and future visitors likely reliance on the private vehicle and resultant harms from this.

Due to a lack of information, there has been a failure to demonstrate that safe site access can be achieved and that highways safety would be adequately maintained.

They also said the plan for the two-bed house was too small: “The dwelling would not provide adequate internal living space for future occupants, contrary to the Nationally Described Space Standards and the council’s residential design guide.”