A FARMER could be £4 million richer if he manages to sell his land with outline Planning permission attached to it.

Charlie Gallichan, of Woodside Farm, St Peter, is selling his 120,000 sq ft plot of land in the countryside, including in-principle planning permission for two houses totalling a maximum size of 30,000 square feet. To qualify for the flying freehold house, the buyer needs to be in the 1(1)K category.

Last month Mr Gallichan received outline Planning consent to demolish two bungalows, agricultural buildings and temporary staff accommodation to build two large houses which together ‘would be the size of the Greenhills Hotel’, according to St Brelade Deputy Sean Power.

Mr Gallichan was originally given permission to build ten houses on the site under a policy, which allows a farmer to build in the countryside as long as the income is put back into the rural economy. Under the policy he would have been forced to put the proceeds back into his other farm at Trinity. But Environment Minister Freddie Cohen stepped in before a permit was issued. Law Officers were consulted and it was decided that ten houses was ‘a substantial departure from the Island Plan 2002’ so the farmer withdrew his application and submitted another for two houses instead.

At the Planning applications panel meeting in October it was decided that two houses, each between 12,000 and 15,000 sq ft, was not ‘a substantial departure’ from the Island Plan 2002. Despite one objection from St Peter resident John Horrell, who said that the houses were ‘enormous’ and that 30 normal-sized houses could be fitted on the site, the panel agreed to the proposal.

• Picture: Charlie Gallichan at the site in St Peter