Food writer Lisa Fearn defends coffee shop closed by council

Lisa Fearn insisted she had done everything in good faith

A food writer and cook has defended attempts to open a cafe as part of a cookery school in Carmarthenshire, after a council order to close it down.

An objector said Lisa Fearn's cafe, in a barn conversion near Nantgaredig, was a breach of planning consent because a decision notice had been amended.

Carmarthenshire council, facing a judicial review, admitted it had no power to amend the notice.

Mrs Fearn said it was never her intention to open a stand-alone cafe.

The council has agreed to pay £24,000 legal costs to the objector, saying it acknowledged "there were some defects in process".

It added Mrs Fearn's husband Jonathan - head of property at the council - had made the required declarations of interest and had not interfered with the planning process in any way.

Councillors approved a plan submitted in 2016 to convert one barn at the Fearns' family home into a cookery school and life skills centre, and a second barn into visitor accommodation.

Conversion work on the barns just off the A40 took place in 2018

One planning condition said the first barn should be built in accordance with the drawings provided - which showed a central "coffee area" - but another condition said the barn "shall be used for a cookery school and no other purpose".

However, it emerged later this condition was amended by a council officer to include a cafe, under separate planning use, said to be "ancillary" to the cookery school and not an independent venture.

When the coffee shop opened in August 2019, the objector - whose name has not been revealed - accused Mrs Fearn of running it as a stand-alone venture.

She denied the claim, but in October the council issued a temporary stop notice, saying it considered a breach of planning control had taken place.

Since then Mrs Fearn has set up a pop-up coffee shop in Carmarthen, which she said was to safeguard jobs and continue to meet the terms of a £128,000 European-funded Welsh Government grant.

'Review original approval'

Carmarthenshire council agreed to a court order quashing the amended decision notice.

It is currently considering a fresh application for the overall scheme.

Mrs Fearn said the matter had cost her several thousand pounds, insisting she had done everything in good faith.

"I am absolutely devastated it has come to this," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"The coffee area was only ever used alongside the cookery school activities."

The Welsh Government said: "In light of the amended planning decision having been declared unlawful, we will review the original grant approval."