PLANS to build 12 new homes beside the A40 dual carriageway can go ahead, after planners approved a scheme to demolish a 200-year-old former hotel building to make way for the new development.

Mount Craig Hall in Pencraig, off the eastbound carriageway of the road between Monmouth and Ross, was originally a farmhouse dating back to the early 19th Century, and was converted into a hotel during the 1930s before being subdivided into 13 apartments in the 1980s.

But now the site could be replaced with 12 homes comprising a mix of one, two, three and four bed properties broadly on the footprint of the existing building – with the exact make-up of the development to be determined when a detailed planning application is submitted.

Whilst the current application is in outline form, it is anticipated the dwellings will be conventional two storey in height, below the level of the existing building.

Each dwelling will also have a commensurate size garden with adequate parking.

Mount Craig Hall was purchased by the applicants Paramount Homes Ltd approximately 35 years ago.

At that time the property was already in use as apartments, having already been converted, extended and significantly altered from its hotel days.

The building is not listed, nor is it within a conservation or considered to be a non-designated heritage asset.

In recent years, the owner has attempted to carry out renovation works to several apartments, but this revealed major structural defects in the walls, partly caused by extensive dry rot which has culminated in the company ceasing further renovation works.

This resulted in four apartments being condemned as uninhabitable, and the applicants are now struggling to obtain valid Energy Performance Certificates for the remaining apartments due to poor insulation and electrical work.

Despite representations made to sister paper the Ross Gazette when the time the planning application was first submitted, no formal objections were made to Herefordshire Council aside from one suggesting that 12 Swift nest bricks should be installed as part of a specialist condition to provide enhancement for biodiversity.

Planning officer Heather Carlisle said Pencraig was not located within a settlement and that former hotel site clearly related to a development proposal outside of the settlement boundary.

She added: “The principle of development for residential use of the site is accepted, because in this case the nearby settlements of Goodrich and Whitchurch provide a range of local services and facilities.”

A planning report stated that Pencraig had “a varied built form” comprising a mix of property types, sizes and materials used.

Ms Carlisle observed that the existing building was a single structure, but had evolved over time through the addition of a series of interconnected elements dating from the 19th century onwards.

“As a result of this organic development, the building displays a varied form, incorporating components of differing scale, orientation, height and external materials,” she said.

“Officers are satisfied that the site is capable of accommodating the proposed development without resulting in unacceptable harm to landscape character, visual amenity, highway safety or any other identified planning interest.”