A new bid has been made to replace redundant buildings on a north Herefordshire farm with five traditional houses.

The application by Downton Estates is for a two-acre site at Nacklestone Farm near Leintwardine.

To be built by local firm Border Oak, the five homes for market sale would consist of one two-bedroom house, two with three bedrooms and two with four.

Sewage would be treated by an on-site packet plant.

So called prior approval, avoiding the need full a full planning application, was granted to convert the existing post-war sheds to housing in December 2020, and this remains “the fallback position” according to the current application.

But it says the buildings are “tired-looking, bulky, and do not make a positive contribution to the character or appearance of the area”.

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A subsequent bid for full permission to knock the buildings down and create five new homes was refused in May this year, on grounds that it would “domesticate and urbanise the rural character of the site”.

The revised application now aims to overcome this with “a re-designed layout, design and appearance which will enhance the site and the character of the surrounding countryside”.

This redesign is based on a traditional farmyard, and is in response to feedback from the council’s historic buildings officer.

Comments on the application, numbered 222253, can be made until August 18.