A CLUSTER of stone-built Victorian barns at Patterdale can be converted into five homes, provided one is for local occupancy, Lake District planners decided.

The national park authority's development control committee voted four to three in favour of plans for Home Farm Barns by Paul Durbin, of Cumbrian Heritage Homes Ltd.

Patterdale Parish Council wanted to see the plans refused due to lack of affordable housing for local needs. Parish councillor Dennis Henderson told the meeting: "We believe two local-needs properties is the minimum that should go into there."

Architect Richard Mason said he appreciated the importance of "keeping these villages alive" and the dwellings had been designed for full-time living, not as holiday lets or second homes.

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He said: "One a scheme like this, even if we just put one affordable house into the mix, this would only give us a nine per cent return, which on a scheme of this size is impossible to consider."

Although the slate-roofed barns - once a heavy horse stable, milking parlour, byres, piggeries, kennels and hay loft - are not listed, Mr Mason said he believed they were architecturally "the best group of barns" in the Ullswater valley.

Committee member Peter Allan said: "I would prefer to see more local housing in it but I don't want to see it just drop and fall," and he praised the sympathetic design of the conversion.

LDNPA chairman Mike McKinley said: "Do we really want to sit here and see some rather noble buildings just collapse and fall into complete disuse? No, I don't want to see that happen."

Anne Hall said she was "extremely worried about all the Lakeland communities" and she could not support open-market housing. Meanwhile, committee chairman Colin Barr said that one local-needs dwelling would be better than none.