AN APPLICATION to use a caravan for holidays in the grounds of the grade 2 listed Bellaire House, Berne Lane, Charmouth has been refused.

A Dorset Council planning officer decided that its use would have a ‘significant impact’ on the siting of the 1830s house, described as a former gentleman’s villa occupied by the Tucker family and subsequent Rectors of Catherston Leweston Manor and Wootton Fitzpaine.

At Little Foxley, The Street, Charmouth, planners approved an application for an extension to the rear of the building to be used as a breakfast room.

The addition is designed to match the existing walls with rubble stone and rendered masonry with painted brickwork under a slate roof.

The parish council raised no objection to the application although there were concerns about how surface water from the site should be dealt with – to be discharged to a pipe drainage system or watercourse, not to a soakaway.