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Permission for a custom-built, oak-framed “forever home” in a Herefordshire village has been refused.

It was to form part of the Webbs Meadow development on the southwest edge of Lyonshall near Kington, where 13 houses are permitted of which several have now been built.

The applicants wanted their “forever home” to be “a sustainable, adaptable and traditionally proportioned and styled house to integrate with the village setting”, the application said.

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With a total floor area of 221 square metres, the design by Herefordshire firm TJ Crump Oakwrights was intended to complement the “emerging self-build community of homes” at Webbs Meadow.

The plan also included a two-storey garage with external staircase.

It was the second bid by the couple, whose first attempt to develop the site was refused in 2022.

Lyonshall parish council supported the application as lying within a site allocated for new housing in the village’s neighbourhood development plan.

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But neighbour Tracey Healey said the new house design was “much more imposing” than the one previously refused, with a “more industrial” appearance.

Another neighbour, Paul Crawford, said the Jenners’ plan would be “over 50 per cent bigger than our home, which isn’t exactly small”.

Planning officer Emma Jones was less concerned with the house than with its free-standing garage, which would be a “prominent and incongruous feature within the street scene, obscuring views of the host dwelling”.

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She was also unhappy a the “disaggregation” of the site into smaller parts, saying this prevented “coordinated development… including ensuring that appropriate amounts and types of affordable housing, and financial contributions towards essential infrastructure, are secured”.

There was also a lack of evidence as to how extra waste water entering local rivers would be mitigated, she said.

Full planning permission was refused.