A PLAN to demolish a large village house and replace it with 11 new homes has been refused permission.

Butler Wall Homes of Pontypool applied to knock down the six-bedroom Bridruthen in two acres of grounds off Bannuttree Lane, Bridstow, west of Ross-on-Wye, and build a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom two-storey houses and bungalows.

Lying within the Wye Valley National Landscape (WVNL), the spot is a short way from the village primary school, bus stop, village hall and church.

But the WVNL planning officer said the application was “inadequate in assessing and considering impacts on the National Landscape”.

Bridstow Parish Council objected for several reasons, chiefly the rise in traffic in the “very narrow” lane and its access onto the A49 and A40.

“Herefordshire Council transport and access services noted that the site was problematic because of the traffic generation aspects when it was considered as part of the abortive neighbourhood development plan process,” the parish councillors added.

The county council’s transport officer was happy with the plans, subject to a list of proposed conditions though.

Around 30 objections from members of the public were also put forward.

Neighbours Allen and Susan Maunders said Bridruthen “should be retained as a single large dwelling or converted into semi-detached or terraced properties, because it is one of the oldest properties in this part of Bridstow”.

A drainage engineer for Herefordshire Council’s public realm contractor Balfour Beatty said that “despite pre-application advice” and the size of the planned development, no infiltration testing, to see how well surface water would soak away, had been carried out.

“We cannot yet provide formal comments on the current surface water drainage proposals until the testing is conducted,” she wrote.

Refusing the scheme, planning officer Heather Carlisle said this remained an obstacle to the proposal.

“The benefits from the addition to the housing stock, which are notably only open-market, would be more compelling if the scheme had an acceptable drainage strategy,” she said.