'Guest favourite’ holiday let refused permission

A Herefordshire resident’s bid to get planning permission for popular holiday accommodation has been knocked back.

Graham Powell had sought retrospective approval for a shepherd’s hut complete with hot tub, composting toilet and outdoor shower at Sollers Hope Farm, roughly midway between Hereford, Ledbury and Ross-on-Wye.

Sleeping two guests, the wooden hut with curved corrugated roof and accompanying facilities was installed in a field south of the farmhouse in summer 2022, his application said. Only afterwards was he told that the change of land use would require planning permission.

A drainage report with his bid said no sewage waste is discharged from the hut, only “grey water” from the shower and sink, which goes into a drainage field.

But Herefordshire Council’s ecology officer said the application failed to explain how compost from the bathroom would be disposed or how the grey water would be treated in order to avoid polluting an adjacent, unnamed brook which flows into the protected river Wye.

This was enough to convince planning officer Joshua Evans, who concluded that “despite a number of attempted [sic] to resolve the ecology objection, it remains the case that the 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”.

Full planning permission was refused.

Still advertised on Airbnb, the shepherd’s hut has an overall rating of 4.92 out of five based on 152 reviews, giving it a “guest favourite” billing by the global letting company.

Mr Powell was asked how intended to now proceed.