Permission has been granted for a distinctive but previously struggling Herefordshire country pub to become a home.

The Herefordshire House Inn in Stanford Bishop near Bromyard, also known as The Pink Pub, had been trading at a loss for some time before closing in 2019, according to the planning application put forward by Craig and Sally Phillips.

Welsh Water and council highways and ecology officers made no objections to their proposal, while the parish council and local CAMRA, the campaign for real ale, did not comment.

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Near neighbour Trevor Jones wrote: “We have no need for a pub nearby that is economically unviable, we might as well be honest with ourselves and stop the pain.” There were no public objections.

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Planning officer Elsie Morgan concluded that while county planning policy seeks to keep pubs as pubs where possible, there are “circumstances where their loss can be evidently justified”.

Confidential accounts confirmed the business had been unviable before its closure, while a subsequent 21-month-long marketing exercise had “led to two appropriate but unsuccessful offers”, she pointed out.

Permission for the conversion was granted on condition that two of the three access points from the pub onto the main B4220 be closed up.