Bid to build country home in East Lothian to help care for beehives rejected by planners

A bid to build a three bedroom country home to help care for beehives in a rural community has been rejected by East Lothian planners.

The application for the home on land at Boggs Holding, on the outskirts of Pencaitland, argued that it would be necessary to provide onsite animal welfare for proposed new hives as well as overseeing three shepherds huts planned as holiday lets.

However planners ruled there was no need to have 24-hour care for the insects and their biodiversity officer warned the honeybees that would be introduced were ‘not native to the UK’ and could impact native bees by out-competing them for food.

The plans from Haddington Roofing and Painting Ltd, included the house, three shepherds huts, workshops and six beehives.

A business plan said the workshops would include flower arranging and bouquet making as well as herb drying and the making of tinctures and tea blending and introducing those taking part to bee keeping, garden biodiversity and nature-based wellness.

Honey produced by the bees would also be sold as part of the business.

The applicant argued that operating the holiday accommodation and commercial business would require a minimum of 40 to 60 hours a week in peak season and 20 to 30 hours a week during quieter months.

They said the work would include “maintenance for the shepherds huts, tending to the herbs and flowers, bee keeping maintenance, honey extraction, sales logistics, and hosting or preparing for workshops”.

A report by officers said: “It is therefore argued that given the seasonal intensity and the necessity for early morning harvests, late guest check-ins, and continuous site presence for security and animal welfare (bees), the need for an onsite dwelling is essential.”

Planners received 14 letters of objection to the plans with concerns raised over the building of a new house in the countryside, lack of public transport to the site and the ‘dangerous siting of beehives close to houses and a public road”.

Recommending the application for refusal, the officers report said: “The operation of the three shepherds huts as holiday lets and the operation of workshops are not uses that requires an onsite presence. Neither does the keeping of bees. All of these uses can be managed remotely.”