A certificate of lawfulness call for a rural Pembrokeshire farm shellfish export business, which has even supplied Rick Stein’s with lobster, has been given the thumbs-up.

In an application to Pembrokeshire County Council, Nerys Edwards of Syren Shellfish Ltd, through agent SB Planning Solutions, sought a certificate of lawfulness for mixed residential and business use, comprising the landing, grading, holding and export preparation of live shellfish, at White Lodge, Scamford Farm, near Keeston.

An application for a certificate of lawfulness allows an applicant to keep a development if they can provide proof of occupancy or use over a prolonged period; in this case the applicant stating the use started back in January 2014.

A supporting statement said permission was granted in 2015 for a change of use of an agricultural storage building to house tanks for shellfish with an ancillary storage cabin.

In 2022, a planning application was submitted to construct a packaging/processing building at White Lodge, adjacent to the existing dwelling and separate from the farm buildings, but was refused in 2024.

This was followed by the applicant receiving a planning contravention notice requiring information in relation to the ownership of the land and its use, the statement says, adding: “It is in preparing evidence in response [to the notice] that it became clear that the use was by now exempt from enforcement action.”

It stressed: “No enforcement notices have been served in respect of the use in question.”

It went on to say: “The B2 [business use] element of the use has been concentrated in the vicinity of the garage, however, given the use of the house for administrative operations and driveway for the parking and turning of business and associated vehicles and landing of shellfish, it is not possible to subdivide the site into a smaller planning unit for the purpose of this application.

“The B2 use commenced between January and March 2014 where shellfish were landed directly to a lorry trailer parked adjacent to the dwelling house in the vicinity of the garage at White Lodge. The fish were graded, sorted, stored and subsequently delivered to the customer at Fishguard for export. After delivery, the lorry would return to the site ready for more fish to be landed.”

For the certificate call, it provided 12 signed and witnessed declarations, including from the applicant, two employees and several fishermen, along with invoices for work at the site, fishmen’s receipts for fish sold, letters and photographs.

It finished: “Syren Shellfish, a B2 operation for the landing, grading, holding and export preparation of live shellfish has been operating from the residential curtilage of White Lodge since 2014. This use has been continuous and it remains in operation today. Significant evidence has been provided to support this.”

An officer report recommending approval said the use “has existed unauthorised and uninterrupted for the required timeframe (10 years) prior to submission of this application and is subsequently immune from enforcement action”.

A certificate of lawfulness was granted.

Back in 2021, following publicity of post-Brexit shipping woes for Syren which had led to extra international paperwork and costs, famed fish restaurateur and television presenter Rick Stein ordered shellfish stock from the business.