Friday June 12th 2026
Owners of land at Boggs Holding want to build a house to watch over bee hives
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
An East Lothian businessman has appealed after being left ‘frustrated and aggrieved’ after council planners rejected his bid to build a house for family to oversee a new tourist business on his land.
John McCallum applied for planning permission to build a three bedroom country home on land previously used as a horses paddock at Boggs Holding, on the outskirts of Pencaitland, to allow his daughter-in-law to manage the new business and care for beehives on the site.
He had argued that it would be necessary to provide onsite animal welfare for proposed new hives as well as overseeing three shepherds huts planned as holiday lets.
However planners ruled there was no need to have 24-hour care for the insects and their biodiversity officer warned the honeybees that would be introduced were ‘not native to the UK’ and could impact native bees by out-competing them for food.
Now Mr McCallum, who applied for planning permission under Haddington Roofing and Painting Ltd, is appealing to East Lothian Council’s Local Review Body to overturn the decision which he says is stopping a tourism venture from making a positive impact on the local economy.
The business plan for the land includes workshops which would offer classes on flower arranging and bouquet making as well as herb drying and the making of tinctures and tea blending and introducing those taking part to bee keeping, garden biodiversity and nature-based wellness.
Honey produced by the bees would also be sold as part of the business.
The applicant argued that operating the holiday accommodation and commercial business would require a minimum of 40 to 60 hours a week in peak season and 20 to 30 hours a week during quieter months.
Planners received 14 letters of objection to the plans with concerns raised over the building of a new house in the countryside, lack of public transport to the site and the ‘dangerous siting of beehives close to houses and a public road”.
Recommending the application for refusal, the officers report said: “The operation of the three shepherds huts as holiday lets and the operation of workshops are not uses that requires an onsite presence. Neither does the keeping of bees. All of these uses can be managed remotely.”
In an appeal to the review body later this month, however, representatives of Mr McCallum say the council planners decision to reject the plans was ‘flawed’ and focused too much on the addition of the house which they said breached policy against new housing in the countryside.
His agent says: “Mr McCallum is a local East Lothian resident and businessman. He is the owner of the site, and the proposed house would be occupied by his son and his daughter in law. Mr McCallum Jr is employed in the family business and Mrs McCallum would manage the proposed business.
“The proposed development represents a further investment in the rural development of Boggs Holdings which has attracted significant development for business and tourism uses in recent years.
“It therefore continues a local precedent and history of small holdings with associated outbuildings being used for business purposes.”
In their appeal statement they include other applications for local housing and tourism sites which were given the green light and urge councillors to use their ‘local knowledge’ to overturn the refusal.
They say: “The proposal will deliver much needed visitor accommodation taking advantage of the location, existing characteristics, and East Lothian countryside.”
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