A ‘NOVELTY’ tourism bid to site a shepherd’s hut in a farmer’s field has won the support of a Scottish Borders Council planning review committee.

A council planning officer had originally refused the application for the hut and the siting of a cabin as holiday let accommodation on land south west of Corstane Farmhouse in Broughton.

Ranald Dods thought the development would “not relate sympathetically to the landscape setting”.

He also stated that it would be small scale and its contribution to the local economy “likely to be correspondingly small”.

But members of the council’s Local Review Body disagreed and overturned the refusal.

East Berwickshire councillor Aileen Orr said: “I am for this proposal. I think we vitally need these small tourist colonies, as it were.

“It doesn’t impact, to me, on the farm at all. It doesn’t impact on the road because it is slightly lower. I think the shepherd’s hut is a great idea and from the point of economics and employment, even if it only supports one or two extra people, it’s still a credible thing in a small community.”

Jedburgh councillor Sandy Scott said: “This was a difficult one for me because it is breaking into a greenfield site, so to speak, but is giving tourism a bit of a boost there and I think it would be quite a novelty going to an old shepherd’s hut. It supports farm diversification so on balance I’d overturn the officer’s decision.”

Mid Berwickshire councillor Donald Moffat added: “I’ve never seen a shepherd’s hut as big as that when I worked on a farm but I think it will do a job. If this makes the business more sustainable for the family then I am all for it.”

Councillors made a condition of approval that the cabin is coloured green.