Plans to develop a former boarding house in Monmouth have been refused by councillors at the third time of asking.

The planning committee met yesterday (4th February) to finally decide on whether to approve plans to convert the listed building in St James's Square into housing.

Councillors were recommended to approve the plans for the former Monmouth School boarding house for a third time in the past three months, but were unhappy their own recommendations had been ignored.

At last month's planning meeting (7th January), members deferred the decision because they weren't happy about the construction of a new building within the grounds of the property, and wanted to look at plans without the house.

The applicant decided not to omit the proposed new house as they wanted the application to "stand on its own merits."

The proposal also included converting the old boarding house into a five bedroom home with two existing extensions demolished for a new two storey extension.

No.11 at St James's Square would become a two-bedroom house and No.12 would be turned into a five-bedroom home, with a redundant outbuilding becoming another two-bedroom house.

Councillors rejected the plans, with Cllr David Dovey saying: "I am totally opposed to the application as it stands."

Cllr Giles Howard added: "Nothing's changed with the application and my mind hasn't changed either."