A POST office proprietor who submitted plans to turn the building into a new wine bar has had the application knocked-back by the council.

In January, the proprietor of the Rising Bridge Post Office in Blackburn Road, Rising Bridge, Barbara Poole, lodged an application with Rossendale Borough Council seeking permission to turn the post office into a wine bar.

Mrs Poole, who has run the post office for the last 25 years and resides in the flat above, was looking to change the use of the ground floor of the premises and believed up to four new jobs could be created if the wine bar was to open.

A planning statement submitted to the council in January said the wine bar would "cater for the local community who do not have any similar establishment within the immediate locality".

She said with the Post Office being re-located to Eureka Animal Feeds and Tack Shop across the road it would mean the community of Rising Bridge wouldn't be without the service.

However, following a planning committee meeting last week, Rossendale Borough Council planning officers decided to refuse the application, stating three reasons.

The decision notice read: "The proposed development has not demonstrated compliance with the Rossendale Local Plan in regards to the loss of a community facility and as such, the scheme conflicts with the Development Plan.

"The proposed development would introduce an unsympathetic facing material to the application property and the use of such a material would fail to respect the existing building and the neighbouring buildings which are of natural stone construction.

"As such, the proposed scheme would have a detrimental impact on the character and appearance of the area and would be contrary to the National Planning Policy Framework and Rossendale Local Plan.

"The proposal would not comply with the development plan and would not improve the economic, social and environmental conditions of the area.

"There were no amendments to the scheme, or conditions which could reasonably have been imposed, which could have made the development acceptable and it was therefore not possible to approve the application."