Camping doesn’t get much more luxurious than this.  Large safari-style tents are spacious enough for real beds, sofas, kitchen area and logburner, plus a sunny verandha with picnic table and deck chairs.  Luxury bathroom pods complete the glamping experience.  This sheltered site is ideal for a relaxed holiday with plenty of green open space for children to play, and farm woodland to explore.  On a working farm in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park, there is a nearby canal towpath leading straight to pubs and a bike hire shop.

Tourism is a popular farm diversification, but developments of this type need to be accompanied by a lot of detail.  Planning requirements included a Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, Business Management Plan and financial evidence that the development would operate as farm diversification, together with full landscape details and the usual floor plans and elevations.  A percolation test for the proposed septic tank was also required.  All the detail is tied together in a robust design and planning statement.   Although initial outlay can be higher than people expect, it’s all worth it when planning permission is granted and the development can start making money. 

It’s important to find the right site for a tourism development on a farm, as noise and smells of a working farm are not everyone’s cup of tea.  The safari tent site is the perfect location, being close enough to the farm to keep the planning department happy, but far enough away to feel secluded.  Hedges and trees around the field add to the feeling of seclusion, and were an important plus-point for the planning application, earning biodiversity brownie points as well as screening the site.