A Bingley father who spent around £5,000 converting a barn into a family home has vowed to fight on after Bradford Council told him to tear it down.

Tony Kemp, pictured, vowed to take his case to keep the building to the highest level after an appeal for retrospective planning permission failed.

He first changed the rundown ruin 17 metres from his home in Lady Lane into a garage for his tractor and lawnmowers which he uses to maintain his four acres of land. But then he realised the buiding's potential and decided to change it into a home. He fitted a kitchen, bathroom and living area with a dormer bedroom in the eaves of the former barn.

Now the Council is preparing enforcement papers to get the stone building demolished after an independent inspector ruled it was "alien" to the character of an agricultural building and harmful to the surrounding green belt.

Mr Kemp, 41, who has three children claims it is built on land which has been part of his garden since 1960 and is not part of the green belt.

"Once we had repaired it, it seemed a bit of a waste of space and we thought we would kit it out as an annexe to the main house for our teenage son or daughter or for when our parents needed sheltered housing," he said.

"When the officer came down I apologised for what we had done. I didn't realise we needed planning permission and so I put in a retrospective application. I didn't think there would be a problem.

"It's an attractive building. It draws on our electricity and water and uses our septic tank, driveway and parking. It is not and never will be a separate dwelling."

Members of Shipley Area Planning Panel turned down the application, saying it was inappropriate in the green belt, could not be converted without substantial rebuilding and was out of keeping with the area.

Mr Kemp said he had used stone which matched the materials of his home at Greenhill Barn. He said the roofing material was the same as property on a new 40-home estate opposite. "As agricultural use there cannot be an issue as it has been there for more than 100 years," he said. "We are going to appeal."