A PLAN to turn a barn on local farm into a large house has reached the end of the road after it was rejected by a government inspector.

An application was made last year to convert the steel-framed, partly open-sided barn at Treaddow Farm near St Owen’s Cross, into a two-storey, four-bedroom home.

The application states that converted barn would be highly insulated and would feature a lean-to glasshouse for food growing, while an adjacent area of low concrete walls and pens was also to be used for raised bed food production.

Ballingham Bolstone and Hentland group parish council backed her application and there were no objections from the public.

However, Herefordshire council’s ecology officer said the application, submitted by Rebecca Field, lacked information on drainage in order to establish there would be no harm to the nearby Garren Brook.

But Herefordshire planners deemed that the main issue was whether the proposed building was a ‘conversion’ or ‘the building of a new rural house’, which would go against county planning policy for developments in the countryside.

Planning officer Elsie Morgan concluded that the plan went beyond what might be classed as a conversion as it comprised a ‘fresh new build’ adding to the original agricultural building.

Ms Field appealed against the refusal of planning permission, claiming Herefordshire Council had approved conversion of other similar steel-framed barns in the area.

But now government-appointed inspector Juliet Rogers has backed the council’s refusal.

With new roof areas below the existing roof structure, “The dwelling would be tantamount to a new dwelling located beneath the existing barn envelope,” she judged, while the proposed glasshouse extension would result in harm to the character and appearance of the barn.

Nor had that the character of the landscape and local distinctiveness “positively influenced its design”, Ms Rogers concluded.

And while the council had previously approved conversion of a Dutch barn at nearby Upperfields Farm, Llangarron four years ago, this was to create tourist accommodation, so different planning policies applied, she added.