A plan to turn tumbledown farm buildings in a remote Herefordshire spot into a family home has been knocked back.

The planning application by a Mr and Mrs Gardner was for Aubrey’s in the Olchon valley between Llanveynoe and Longtown near the Welsh border, where the couple proposed linking the ruined farmhouse with outbuildings into a single three-bedroom house.

Mr Gardner told councillors on Herefordshire’s planning committee that having visited the area for over 40 years, “with your permission, we hope to make this restoration our home”.

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The couple had “agreed to every requested amendment” made by planning officer Simon Withers, who now recommended the plan be approved.

“On the other hand, our approaches to engage constructively with locals have been ignored,” Mr Gardner said.

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The application had drawn over 50 objections, though Mr Gardner said 16 had come from just two households, while others were from “much further afield”.

Among the objectors, neighbour Miriam Griffiths said the “inappropriately large, sprawling proposal has enormous negative landscape impact” and was not supported by the council’s own landscape and heritage officers.

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For Longtown parish council, Coun Pamela Tribe said the council “has objected three times to this deeply flawed proposal” which aimed “to build a new dwelling under the guise of restoring a historic farmstead”.

Ward councillor Matthew Engel said other potential developers “are watching this case, believing it will signal goldrush time in the Olchon valley”, which “would change it dramatically, and not involve affordable houses for local people”.

Going against the case officer’s recommendation, councillors on the committee voted to refuse the proposal.