A DISUSED village pub and restaurant between Ross and Hereford is the latest that could be converted into a house.

The Castle Inn in Pendant Pitch, Little Birch, closed seven years ago and appears to have lain vacant since.

Now in a full planning application (number 261211), owner Dee Langford is proposing to turn it into a single five-bedroom house.

Accompanying plans show much of the layout of the pub preserved, which previously let five guest rooms upstairs.

Downstairs, the bar would become a lounge, while apparently retaining the actual bar, the ladies’ toilets would become the main bathroom and the gents’, an office.

The current kitchen and dining room would remain largely unchanged.

Local CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) representative Mark Haslam said he would now attempt to gauge local feeling on the potentially permanent loss of the village pub.

Herefordshire CAMRA has led successful defences of closed but arguably viable pubs in the county also threatened with conversion, such as the Crown Inn in Colwall, and is also working to save The Broadleys in south Hereford, where a conversion plan into a drive-through coffee shop is currently before county planners.

But Mr Haslam said his group only mounts such efforts where there is clear local demand to retain pubs.

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal.

The Castle Inn previously held an “excellent” customer rating of 4.9 out of 5 on travel site TripAdvisor, based on 53 reviews, with one calling it “an out-of-the-way gem”.