Plans rejected for new mansion at beauty spot

A modernist mansion complete with sauna, pool and waterfall proposed for a Herefordshire beauty spot will not be built after a government inspector threw out the plan.

The application to build six-bedroom Glenwood Springs, on Chase Road in Upper Colwall in the Malvern Hills National Landscape, was lodged in 2021.

But after drawing more than 30 objections, the application made its way to county council level, with the planning committee refusing the scheme a year ago against a planning officer's advice.

That meant the applicant could challenge the ruling, which brought it before the government inspector who too rejected the scheme, dismissing the appeal.

The home was to be made up of two two-storey blocks clad in timber, render and local stone with flat green roofs, and joined by a glazed atrium.

Proposed on-site electricity generation, ground source heat pumps, solar panels and other measures were presented as contributions to a highly sustainable build.

In their consideration, the inspector acknowledged the proposed house "would be an outstanding and innovative design, promoting high levels of sustainability [and raising] the standard of design more generally in the area" – which may provide an exception in national planning policy to the general ban on building new houses in open countryside.

"Nevertheless," they added, "the proposal would not fit in with the overall form and layout of the surroundings", and they concluded that in this regard, it went against both neighbourhood and county planning policy.

Visually, it would also "have an adverse effect" on the wider area which, as a designated National Landscape, "has the highest status of protection in relation to these issues", the inspector stated.

Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.