A business owner is trying for a second time to get permission to keep their Japanese Koi Carp farm in Needingworth.

The company Japan Koi Imports was previously refused planning permission for the buildings it operates out of at Cottage Farm in Lowndes Drove.

Now the owner hopes changes they have made will convince Huntingdonshire District Council to allow the fish farm to stay.

In documents submitted to the district council the company said it began importing the colourful fish from Japan in 2016, which are sold to people across the country.

During the Covid-19 pandemic the company also began breeding the fish after a ban was placed on all imports.

Earlier this year the district council refused to give planning permission for the fish farm.

The district council said the koi farm was considered to be an “unacceptable form of development in the countryside”.

The authority also argued that the proposal “failed to respond positively to its context within a countryside setting”, highlighting the various storage containers.

In the latest application submitted to the district council, the company said it had amended its plans to try and address the authority’s concerns.

The plans said evidence had been provided that the fish farm had been set up in an old redundant agricultural building.

It added that the shipping containers were proposed to be removed, so that the fish farm would “continue to preserve the countryside setting”.

The plans said: “This application addresses the reasons for refusal of [the previous application].

“The amended proposal seeks to regularise use of the building for breeding and distribution of koi carp and ancillary retail of fish related products.

“Permission is also sought to retain the single-storey extension on the south west elevation of the former agricultural building use for the ‘colouring up’ of koi before onward distribution.

“Likewise, the hardstanding and agricultural land previously used in association with the former agricultural building is to be secured.

“To address reason two of refusal [for the previous application], all containers and ancillary structures used in association with the enterprise are to be removed from site.

“This includes the storage shipping, quarantine facilities, and welfare facilities.

“Where feasible, these will be subsumed into building one and two, or else relinquished.”

The district council will now have to consider the latest application, with the offer to remove the shipping containers, and decide whether it can now give permission for the fish farm to remain.