A plan to build up to five new houses at a sensitive spot near Herefordshire’s border with Worcestershire has been refused.

The Whitbourne Estate applied in May to develop an acre of paddock alongside the Whitbourne brook, a designated local wildlife site, between the historic village of Whitbourne and Meadow Green with its more modern houses.

The application sought “permission in principle” (PIP), an alternative route to gaining planning permission. If passed, a further application setting out the details of the houses would still have to be approved.

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Whitbourne parish council objected that the proposal as being “clearly outside the settlement”, saying it “would destroy part of an important rural and wildlife landscape”.

There were also 18 objections from members of the public.

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A Mr and Mrs Taggart of the village felt the single-track road through the village with no passing places would be “totally unsuitable for the heavy vehicles that would need to access the building site”, while the extra traffic from the houses would endanger the horses, walkers and cyclists who use the lane.

Fellow resident Muriel Jones said current tenants of the paddock “keep chickens and ducks and are planting fruit and other trees” along with wildflowers.

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“Adding houses to this piece of nature would disturb the wildlife we finally have returned to this area, such as kingfishers, muntjac deer and thousands of wild birds and insects,” she added.

Herefordshire Council’s ecology officer said that the proposed scheme’s nearness to protected river systems meant the council would have to carry out a full habitat regulations assessment, adding that that PIP “may not be an appropriate route for development of this type in this location”.

Agreeing with this, planning officer Gavin Forrest concluded that the proposal met none of local planning policy’s justifications for building new homes in rural areas, making its location “unacceptable”.