A parish council which tried to save the only pub in a Herefordshire village is fighting moves to have it reclassed as a house.

Mr and Mrs T Windmill are seeking planning permission to formally change the use of the Lamb Inn, Stoke Prior near Leominster, which closed in 2017 and is currently used as a home and holiday let.

“There is a lot of history with this,” Humber, Ford and Stoke Prior Group Parish Council chairman Hugh Fowler-Wright told a meeting which drew around two dozen residents.

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Noting that neither the Windmills or their agent had joined the meeting, he said: “We have spent literally years to get them to operate it as a pub,” pointing out the parish’s development plan has an explicit policy to retain it as “a facility for local people and visitors”.

Yet once the current application is granted, “it will be well-nigh impossible to overturn”, he said.

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The couple had previously “turned down flat” an offer by the parish council of “slightly more than its value as a pub”, Coun Fowler-Wright explained. “Obviously they want its value as a house.”

On the question of whether the downstairs, the part of the building registered as a pub, is being used as holiday accommodation, parish clerk Allan Shaw said: “We have raised this with enforcement many times.”

A well-attended Stoke Prior parish meeting discussed the fate of the Lamb InnA well-attended Stoke Prior parish meeting discussed the fate of the Lamb Inn (Image: LDRS) The council will also ask ward member Coun Bruce Baker to push for it to be decided by Herefordshire Council’s planning committee – which would be more likely if locals “make a fuss” by objecting individually as well, Coun Fowler-Wright added.

Already ten individual objections to the change-of-use application have been published. Comments can be submitted up to October 10.

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The parish council is also seeking clarification on whether an external stair and first-floor balcony, for which the Windmills are also seeking planning approval, are a safety requirement of its holiday let use.

“I hope he is made to take it down,” one resident said, while another claimed it overlooked several neighbouring gardens.

The property is currently on the market, as a “former village pub converted to holiday let”, at £630,000.