County planners have rejected a scheme to set up tree tents for tourists to stay in near Leominster.
James and Bridget Vaughan had asked Herefordshire Council for permission to change the use of oak trees within a field at Oakfields Farm in Kingsland to allow tow tree tents to be used for tourism.
His idea was to rig the 3m diameter spheres, which have a wooden and aluminium structure, between two trees using straps that go around the branches.
The tents would take up to two people each along with a wood burning stove and LED lighting.
The Vaughans, who run a mixture of farming enterprises, said they wanted to move into tourism.
“With the agricultural market volatile and vulnerable to changes such as Brexit and the evolving common agricultural policy reform, weather, supermarket powers, world and domestic markets and rising costs it is imperative that we look to diversify into the tourism industry with the hope that we can create a stable income for our young family,” Mr Vaughan said.
Similar structures featured on Channel 4’s programme George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces.
Mr Clarke said they were ‘absolutely magical’ and ‘a triumph in precision engineering’.
“The interior captures the romance and cosines of a tent that just happens to be suspended in the air,” he said.
But planners have rejected the scheme which they say is contrary to the county’s core strategy.
They say plans are lack information showing that it would not affect the environment and harm protected species.
“There is insufficient information to allow the planning authority to conclude beyond all reasonable scientific and legal doubt that there would not be any likely significant adverse effects on the River Lug Site of Special Scientific Interest,” the decision notice reads.
Planners also say that placing the holiday lets in such an isolated location in open countryside would be unsustainable leaving tourists fully dependent on the use of a private vehicle to access services and facilities.
The Vaughans has six months from August 29 to appeal the decision.
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