House clause leaves move to safeguard Dales vet surgery in doubt

A move to safeguard the future of a veterinary surgery in the Yorkshire Dales village where the original All Creatures Great and Small television series was filmed is in doubt after planners rejected a bid to allow the managing vets to have an on-site home in their own names.

A meeting of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s planning committee heard members had resolved last August to grant planning consent to the conversion of a former Wensleydale Railway goods shed at Askrigg, subject to an agreement restricting occupancy of the building and tying it to the surgery.

Members had agreed to the two-storey extension and conversion of the former railwway building to provide a four-bedroom house for the surgery manager, despite it being among a limited number of designated business sites in the national park, after hearing the vets needed to be on hand to treat emergency cases.

However, Michael Woodhouse, who runs the surgery with his wife, Davinia, told the meeting they had worked at the business for nearly 18 years and expected to continue to work as vets for the next 25 years and wanted to have the proposed house in their own names.

The meeting was told the authority had received a letter from the vet’s accountant stating “for tax reasons it would be preferable if the proposed dwelling was held in their names and not Bainbridge Vets”.

Mr Woodhouse said while they supported tying the proposed house to a veterinary business on site, a clause in the planning consent stipulated that both the house and practice be owned by Bainbridge Vets.
He said the clause prevented “the sale of the goodwill of the business or a merger with another business” and “continuing to keep my home”.

Mr Woodhouse said the proposed clause weakened the ability of the surgery to adapt to a changing world and “potentially jeopardises the future of the business”.

He said: “Who knows what the industry will look like in ten or 20 years’ time with Brexit, changes in farming support and Government.”
If the park authority insisted on maintaining the tie between the business and the proposed house it was likely the development would not go ahead, he said, rather than saving a historically interesting property, the goods shed would be “left to further dilapidate”.

Askrigg farmer and authority member Allen Kirkbride said action to renovate the building was needed “before it drops down”. He said: “I think we should do all we can to help this building go ahead.”

Nevertheless, members said the reason they had approved the proposal last year was because it was tied to the business and that limiting tax was not a relevant planning concern.

The authority’s member champion for cultural heritage, Libby Bateman said: “When we saw this come forward we saw it as really important to the vets’ practice that somebody lives on site and we recognised the value of that.”