Demolition order for 'horse lab' built as a home

A property owner has been told to demolish a stable converted into a home instead of a facility to analyse horse semen and house workers.

Planners described the two-storey, two-bedroom house near Great Abington, Cambridgeshire, as a "flagrant breach of planning policy".

Permission was granted in 2014 to build a replacement stable block and a horse laboratory, with a small upstairs flat linked to the lab use. Council planners said while the outside of the building looked like the approved plans, the inside was solely a residential home.

A planning inspector has ordered the house to be knocked down by 6 May 2026.

South Cambridgeshire District Council issued an enforcement notice in July 2023 requiring demolition of the property, which the owner appealed against.

However, the Planning Inspectorate dismissed the appeal, saying the house was "decidedly residential".

An inspector who visited the site in January said: "No laboratory has been installed, no research or stored equipment associated with the business is apparent, either on the photographs from 2022 or at the time of my visit."

The ground floor had a kitchen, island breakfast bar and home furnishings instead of a horse semen collection and analysis business.

Upstairs, where there was meant to be a self-contained living space with a kitchen, there was no such kitchen.

Tumi Hawkins, South Cambridgeshire District Council's lead cabinet member for planning, welcomed the decision.

"This case shows the importance of adhering to the specific uses and conditions that justify development in rural areas," she said.

The inspector said it would be necessary to knock the house down, and that keeping the building but stopping people from living there alone would not be enough.

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