Permission for cottages at historic home

An up-market nursing home in the Herefordshire countryside has won permission to build cottages for staff within its extensive grounds.

Based at the grade II listed Brockhampton Court between Hereford and Ross-on-Wye, the home applied for planning permission to address its lack of accommodation for live-in carers with a plan for three single-storey cottages around a courtyard, each for two members of staff.

The main objection to this came from Herefordshire Council’s landscape officer, who said the cottages would sit in an “important park and garden close proximity to listed buildings” and within a wider designated area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB). Yet the plans “don’t reflect any landscape enhancements, or demonstrate the setting of the proposal has been taken into account”.

This was echoed by the Wye Valley AONB authority, which also pressed for a ban on additional external lighting at the development unless by prior agreement, given that darks skies “are an intrinsic aspect” of the AONB.

This was included as a condition of the planning permission, alongside a requirement for the home to have a landscaping plan approved beforehand.

No comments were lodged by the parish council or the public.

Planning officer Gemma Webster concluded: “Whilst there is some impact upon the setting of the listed building, the design proposed is akin to that of an outbuilding within the estate grounds, [which] alongside the social and economic benefits that the proposal will bring, outweighs any harm.”

A further condition requires the cottages to be used only by nursing home staff, and not sold or let separately.