Plans for Longridge holiday lodges refused by council

The proposal would have seen two holiday accommodation units built on land off Higher Road, adjacent to Brows Farm, together with parking, access works, and landscaping.

Planning documents said the scheme was intended to provide small-scale tourist accommodation in a rural setting on land south-west of Longridge.

The lodges would have been used for short-term visitor stays and designed using materials intended to blend into the surrounding countryside.

An aerial view of the planned site (Image: ALH Design Services/Google Maps)

Applicants argued the development would provide a sustainable form of rural tourism accommodation while remaining modest in scale and making use of existing access arrangements from Higher Road.

However, council planners concluded the development would harm the character of the area.

In its decision notice, the council said the site was not considered to be sufficiently related to an existing settlement, village, or group of buildings.

The authority concluded that introducing two new holiday lodges in the location would erode the rural qualities of the surrounding area, and fail to conserve the character and appearance of the Forest of Bowland National Landscape.

The council said the harm would be worsened by the design of the buildings and would outweigh the benefits of the proposal.

Planners also said insufficient information had been submitted about access and parking arrangements and therefore could not be satisfied the scheme would not compromise highway safety.

One resident warned that a proposed entrance onto Higher Road would be dangerous because it would be located on what they described as a fast road and blind bend.

They also argued there were already significant numbers of holiday accommodation units in the area and questioned whether the proposal represented genuine farm diversification.

Another objector raised concerns about road safety, privacy, and the visual impact of the lodges.

They claimed the development would overlook nearby homes and farm buildings and said the units would be prominent on the hillside, harming views of the countryside.

The planning statement submitted with the application said the lodges had been carefully designed to integrate with the surrounding landscape through landscaping, sympathetic design and a limited scale of development.

It also stated that traffic generation would be low and would not materially affect the local highway network.

Despite those arguments, Ribble Valley Council concluded the development was not sustainable development and could not be made acceptable through planning conditions or amendments.