A plan to convert three barns at a Herefordshire farm into houses has been rejected.

Hay-Wired Homes of Brecon sought approval for its plan for the barns at Newton Farm between Clifford and Dorstone under what are called permitted development rights, which allows for certain building conversions without the need for full planning permission.

But the council’s planning officer said that without a structural survey it was “not clear whether the buildings are of robust form and structurally sound” for conversion into homes.

And given two of the barns are partly open-sided, requiring outer walls to be created, “I have not been satisfied that this amounts to a genuine conversion and consider it more akin to starting afresh”, she said.

This puts them outside the rules for permitted development, meaning the proposal would require full planning permission.

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Clifford Parish Council said it opposed “this further proposal to increase the proportion of residential versus agricultural usage of this site”, given that permission already exists for another four houses around the farm.

Councillors were also concerned about extra residential traffic on the narrow surrounding lanes alongside farm vehicles – though highways officials did not object.

The farm was among several in the county formerly owned by Herefordshire Council, which it controversially sold off in 2016.