Plan to reopen Herefordshire riverside pub

A Herefordshire country pub closed for over three years has plans to reopen with 12 new holiday glamping units alongside.

The Temeside Inn on the A456 at Little Hereford shut in 2020 after being damaged in flooding from the river Teme which runs alongside it.

Mr J Leonard’s application for outline planning permission (number 233682) now proposes how the half-hectare site could be brought back in to use.

A statement with his application says the pub itself can be refurbished and reopened once a “significant” insurance claim arising from the flood damage pays out.

Some work has already been carried out at the site since the flood, with a new retaining wall built alongside the car park and some land behind this contoured to accommodate the glamping “lodges”.

These will be a mix of “modest” one- and two-bedroom units on the opposite side of the pub from the road and accessed from it via an existing entrance. Twelve more car parking spaces would be added.

The units would be screened by new tree and hedge planting, and waste water from them would drain into an adjacent private treatment plant.

Details of their design would follow in a later application.

They would “significantly enhance the overall financial sustainability of the existing rural business and help to secure its long-term future as a viable local pub”, the application explains.

A flood risk assessment accompanying the application says the floor levels of the units will be at 30cm above the Teme’s peak river flood level. It also includes a flood management emergency plan.

Comments on the application can be made until January 29.