A VILLAGER’S bid to turn a garage into a holiday let within the the Wye Valley National Landscape has been rejected by planners after concerns of sewage escaping into the river.

Ben Marshall of Willow Cottage, in Hoarwithy near Ross-on-Wye, applied in January for permission to convert the cottage’s twin garage.

This proposed splitting it into two floors, with an open-plan kitchen, dining and living room below and a bedroom and shower room in the roof space.

The main garage doors were to be replaced with timber cladding and windows, a new door was to be added to the rear, while three new windows would have been added to light the upper floor.

Both Ballingham, Bolstone & Hentland group parish council and the neighbouring Llanwarne parish council supported the application, although Llanwarne raised concerns over “letting the property to holidaymakers who may not be aware of the flood dynamics” of the area, beside the Wriggle Brook which joins the River Wye nearby.

And it was the likely impact of the proposal on the protected river system which led to it being refused.

The council’s principal ecology officer said foul water from the holiday home was to be treated in an existing half-century old septic tank and drainage field, a system of underground pipes to discharge water from the tank.

But this latter “is not operating correctly and needs to be replaced”.

An investigation found the drainage field was failing and slow to drain, and while there was no evidence of pollution, the proposal to convert the existing garage into accommodation would risk overloading the system.

Based on this, planning officer Josha Evans concluded Mr Marshall’s application “does not demonstrate a foul water drainage solution which will not result in a likely significant effect on the water quality in the River Wye special area of conservation”.