A DISUSED water tower in a remote rural spot could form part of a new home under newly published plans submitted to Herefordshire Council planners.

Andrew Jackson of nearby fruit business Man of Ross is seeking full planning permission (application 261895) to convert the tower, in an orchard between the hamlets of Wilsons Cross and Glewstone, west of Ross-on-Wye, and to build new single-storey accommodation alongside it.

This would house the two proposed bedrooms, while the tower itself, built of cast iron atop buttressed red brickwork with an internal spiral staircase, would serve as the main entrance hallway with a “lookout” and study above.

The new, single-storey part “would be screened entirely, leaving only limited public views of the upper reaches of the water tower”, whose “primacy” within the immediate landscape would remain, a statement with the application explains.

A lounge would give onto a south-facing “sun terrace” while the property would be bounded by a new hedge and “ha-ha” or concealed wall.

In addition, its flat roof would be covered by a mix of Sedum planting and solar panels.

Rather than create a new opening onto the narrow Daffaluke Lane, the proposed house off Skakes Road and Glewstone Road, would also be accessed via a “lengthy” track along the field boundary from an existing opening to the northeast.

Lying in an area “where large four-bedroom and five-bedroom houses predominate”, the “modest-sized, mainly single-storey” home 150 yards from the Wye Valley National Landscape border would “add to the local housing mix”, likely suiting an older household, the planning statement adds.

The development would help conserve the water tower, which will not be materially altered and is a non-designated heritage asset, it says.

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

The application can be commented on until September 24, with a decision due by October 5.