A FAMILY that faced “losing everything” a month ago when their plan to restore a 200-year-old farmhouse was rejected have seen the decision overturned, following a voting "irregularity".

A councillor's temporary absence from the original online meeting forced it to be brought back and reconsidered, where it was approved by one vote.

Mike Wells and his wife were facing a massive financial loss when councillors ruled that the project to bring the remote farmhouse back into use between Raglan and Chepstow had become a new development, and couldn’t be allowed in the countryside.

That risked the couple being left with a half-completed building on a mountainside at Earlswood near Shirenewton, which they had planned to make their home, as well as facing the cost of dismantling the building and restoring the land.

The decision to orginally refuse planning permission was taken on the casting vote of committee chairman Cllr Phil Murphy (Welsh Con, Caerwent) after councillors were split on whether the application should be rejected in line with the recommendation from officers.

But in a highly unusual move, the decision came back to Monmouthshire Council’s planning committee’s December 3 meeting due to a “procedural irregularity”, when a councillor who had been attending the meeting via video link had temporarily disappeared off screen.

“I want to remind everybody you must stay on screen, in shot on camera, with the computer on at all times," Cllr Murphy told members.

“It’s a technicality – last time one member disappeared off screen for a short period and we didn’t pick it up at the time and as a result the matter has had to come back to us.”

Agent Geraint John, representing the Wells family, told the committee: “They are a young family who’ve seen their aspirations for a family home, and life savings, put at huge risk as a result of unforeseen circumstances and the seemingly uncompromising planning process.”

He said planning officers had been wrong to tell councillors they needed to base an approval on a planning policy, and they could grant permission on “one or more material planning considerations”.

He said Mr Wells had offered to restore the land and make a contribution towards affordable housing, which one councillor said would be worth around £30,000.

Mr John said benefits included the restoration of the 200-year-old farmhouse, and officers had since withdrawn the impact on landscape as a reason for refusal and accepted there hadn’t been a deliberate collapse of the property or breach of planning permission, for restoration, granted in 2018.

But while planning officer Amy Longford called the offer of an affordable housing contribution “admirable and lovely”, she said benefits did not “outweigh” the long standing policy against new homes in the open countryside.

And she cautioned that allowing single houses in the countryside could undermine future planning policy.

But following a new vote, the recommendation for refusal was rejected by eight votes to seven, when Chepstow member Sue Riley (Welsh Lab), who had abstained in November, voted against refusing the application.