A NEW fishing lake and holiday lodges, tents and camping pods at a hotel in Hartpury have been rejected by planners over flooding fears.

Tom Ring had applied for permission from Forest of Dean District Council to develop a new 22-peg competition fishing lake at Watersmeet Hotel in Hartpury.

His proposals included placing 12 log cabins, four camping pods and three bell tents for tourists to stay in.

The development would have meant reducing the size of the existing fishing pond to the north of the hotel and the new tourist accommodation, other than three of the log cabins, would have been located on the western side of the new fishing lake.

A circular permeable vehicular access track would have also been provided around the new fishing lake.

However, district planners recommended rejecting the scheme due to flood risk.

They say it is “clearly” contrary to the development plan and the location is considered to be unacceptable due to surface water flooding.

This echoed the sentiments of two local households who objected to the scheme over concerns it increased the risk of flooding.

They also raised concerns that storm sewage outfalls would contaminate the watercourses and the access onto the A417 posed a road safety hazard.

And while Hartpury Parish Council said they were happy with the scheme in principle, they wanted reassurance that any excess soil would be removed from the site to prevent any further flooding issues.

The planning committee followed the officer recommendation and voted to reject the proposals at their meeting on October 11.

Originally part of the Hartpury estate, the Watersmeet started life as a small cottage and is believed to date back to the early 1900s.

It was later extended to provide B&B accomodation.

The hotel has been owned by the Ring family for many years, and has long been a popular retreat for anglers because of the on-site lakes.