A BID to turn a closed village pub into a home has been rejected by planners after opposition from the Campaign for Real Ale.

Denise Langford sought planning permission in April to turn the Castle Inn in Little Birch, between Hereford and Monmouth, into a single five-bedroom house.

However, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), said that Ms Langford had failed to make even a rudimentary case for the conversion and loss of the facility, despite it being shut for seven years.

CAMRA stated that her application did not address the pub’s commercial viability, any attempts to market it as such, or local alternatives should the pub be lost – meaning it didn’t meet Herefordshire Council’s planning policy.

Little Birch Parish Council also unanimously opposed Ms Langford’s conversion bid following an extraordinary meeting in June.

But family friend Jack Tinton said the Castle Inn ‘is tucked away and receives very little passing trade’, which has always been one of the main reasons why it struggled to attract enough customers.

David Langford, a former licensee of the Castle Inn, said that he had previously attempted to run the pub with colleague Paul Chicken.

“We both ran and worked in many successful destination pubs, but the Castle just couldn’t seem to get off the ground,” he wrote.

The applicant, in seeking to address the issues raised, explained that the pub was not ‘treasured by the community’ and said that running the pub had led numerous landlords into financial ruin.

But Herefordshire planning officer Laura Smith agreed with CAMRA and the parish council that the application was at odds with local planning policy, adding that the loss of the pub would hit local employment, tourism and businesses which had previously supplied it.

The neighbourhood plan states that the Castle Inn, along with St Mary’s Church and Little Birch village hall should be retained as social and community facilities.