LOCALS in one Herefordshire village have blasted plans to turn their local pub into a house.

The Lamb Inn in Stoke Prior is at the centre of a row over whether its owners should be allowed to turn it into a home after years of operating it as an AirBnB without planning permission for a change of use.

Previous plans to turn the pub into a home were refused by council planners in 2018 and were further refused by a planning inspector at appeal.

But now a new change of use application has been submitted to Herefordshire Council

To date, the application has received 29 objections, including from the Campaign for Real Ale, and the parish council.

In a strongly-worded objection, parish councillors have blasted the application, claiming that statements in application documents "do not stand scrutiny".

These include assertions that the owners have only received one offer to buy the pub, which "wasn't acceptable", that the parish council has not sought to add the pub to its community asset list, that the local community has not attempted to acquire or find an alternative use for it, that "all reasonable efforts" have been made to sell it as a pub.

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The council has refuted all of these claims in a list titled "actual documented facts".

Councillors said the sale adverts implied the pub was already a dwelling, being listed as a "former pub", and that it had not sold because its valuation as a pub is only about 40 per cent of the asking price. The council had made an offer for it in March 2020, which was above market value but was "summarily rejected, councillors said.

"It can be concluded that such a valuation is a way of ensuring that there is no interest in purchasing the pub," the council said.

Councillors said the pub was successfully registered as an asset of community value in June 2018, and that there have been no reasonable efforts made to sell the pub, only "unreasonable efforts". They further said that "a number" of prospective purchasers have approached the council over the years.

The council response also said that the application's claim that the pub is not longer viable or required and its change of use to a home is appropriate is "completely false".

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"The applicants are grossly overvaluing the property which makes it completely unattractive to any potential purchasers," councillors said.

Councillors said they also "strongly object" to the application's attempt to regularise an external staircase and balcony built without consent at the pub, which they said overlooks neighbouring properties.

"It is doubtful such a balcony would have received initial consent and it should be refused now," the response said.

Comments on the application, which has a target determination date of November 4, are due by October 10.