Plans for four futuristic “glamping domes” on a Herefordshire hillside have been approved.

A planning application by Mr N Cocum of The Bringewood, part of New House Farm, Burrington near Ludlow submitted in December 2022 said the four will lie within gaps in sloping woodland.

Extending an established self-catering business at the farm, the “high-quality, low-impact, luxury” modular domes will be 4 metres high and 7m across and will sit on elevated decking and will be screened by new planting.

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Accompanying plans show an open-plan circular interior for dining, sitting and sleeping, with an enclosed WC and shower room in the middle. Each can sleep two adults and three children, or four adults.

The proposal would increase employment at the farm from three full-time equivalent posts to five, the application said.

A proposed new shared foul water treatment system allayed the Herefordshire Council ecology officer’s concerns, echoed by the local parish council, over the domes’ impact on nearby protected rivers.

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Council planners considered that, being “modest in size and obscured by existing trees” and without immediate neighbours, the development would “not have an unacceptable impact upon the landscape”.

It would create “a modest economic benefit” locally without bringing so much extra traffic as to impact on road safety, they concluded.

Among conditions with the permission are a ban on outside lighting, on amplified music or voices inside the domes or out, and on anyone staying in them longer than four weeks.