Plan to build homes on the edge of a “beautiful” Somerset village have been turned down.

Bath and North East Somerset Council refused planning permission for six homes to be built on a stone reclamation yard by Pensford.

The small village boasts an impressive viaduct, a fourteenth century church, and a Grade II listed village lock-up but only has about a thousand residents. The new homes would not have been in the centre of the historic village, but instead just up Pensford Hill on what is currently JAT Environmental Reclamation.

John Albert Tyler had submitted a planning application to turn the yard into a development of six homes, stating that they would blend in with existing houses on either side of the site.

But Council officers rejected the plan, stating that the development was outside of Pensford’s housing boundary and would have a greater impact on the green belt than the current use as a reclamation yard.

The plans had received some supporting comments from the village, with one person saying that new homes would help to keep the village “a thriving community,” but Publow with Pensford Parish Council had lodged an objection.

A letter from the parish council stated: “The Parish Council are concerned that this development would result in the loss of commercial land and employment opportunities contravening our neighbourhood plan.

“There was also some concern about the access onto the A37 and pedestrian access to the Bristol bound bus stop.”

LDRS, John Wimperis