A SYMONDS Yat hotel owner has been refused permission to expand car parking at a sensitive spot by the river Wye.

Kimberley Danter of Blakemere, who owns the Paddocks Hotel, located in the Wye Valley National Landscape, applied a year ago to turn a quarter-acre of flat riverside grassland north of an existing car park into additional parking space for the hotel.

However, Whitchurch and Ganarew Group Parish Council objected to this application, stating that a ‘long-established, healthy hedge’ had already been removed during bird nesting season, to make this car parking area larger which is already being used as such.

“There is no need for this proposal other than further commercial gain,” the parish council added.

Resident Jeff Seddon also pointed out that the proposed car park was already in use last year.

Planning officer Josh Bailey said a permanent car park at the spot ‘would inevitably be at odds with the local landscape character’, adding that the application did not make clear if it was to be tarmacked, and whether any landscaping would reduce its visual impact.

Herefordshire Council’s ecology officer James Bisset objected that Ms Danter’s application did not address likely environmental effects of her plan, not only on the protected river but also the nearby protected woodlands – where any impact on horseshoe bats in particular would need assessing.

He also feared that the car park, some way from the hotel, could attract more wild swimmers and other water sports and leisure users, “with associated increase in recreational disturbance on habitats and species.

The report acknowledges that there is already an issue over the character and appearance of the local landscape being degraded by roadside parking throughout Symonds Yat, including down Ferrie Lane.

Mr Evans also noted that the site is in Flood Zone three, or at highest risk of flooding – yet “no assessment has been provided regarding surface water impacts or flood risks”.

Without sufficient detail on this or the biodiversity aspects of the bid, he concluded it was not in line with local and county planning policies.

The application for full planning permission was refused.