Plans to turn Budleigh Salterton’s disused sorting office into a pub have been turned down.

The decision – from East Devon District Council (EDDC) – is due to a lack of flood-risk assessment and the proposal of a roof terrace and beer garden, which the authority says would have impacted on adjoining residencies.

Speculation that the former Royal Mail building in High Street was to be given ‘a new lease of life’ emerged in January 2017, when the ‘iconic’ building was sold.

Proposals for a change of use were submitted to EDDC last May.

It was proposed the premises would become a two-storey pub/restaurant with a residential apartment.

The plans included a main bar and restaurant area, a smaller bar/lounge area, a beer garden to the rear, a first-floor roof terrace, a secondary first-floor overflow bar area, a function room and an office.

Budleigh Salterton Chamber of Commerce welcomed the plans, saying it was ‘happy to hear that the old post office building is going to be used at last’.

But the application drew opposition from Budleigh Town Council. In May, its planning committee voted to oppose the proposals over concerns that the planned roof terrace would lead to a loss of amenity for neighbours.

In November, the town council reaffirmed its objections, saying a glass acoustic screen added to the plan would not settle the issue.

In its decision to refuse planning permission, EDDC said that the proposal ‘has failed to demonstrate that the occupants and users of the building would be safe in the event of a flood’.

It also said the creation of a roof terrace and beer garden would ‘give rise to unacceptable levels of noise and disturbance which would adversely affect the living conditions of the occupiers of adjoining residential properties’.

A proposed glass block wall would ‘adversely affect’ the outlook from the windows of an adjacent flat and ‘would not reduce the levels of noise and disturbance to an acceptable level’, said the council.

EDDC says it worked ‘positively’ with the applicant ‘to resolve the planning concerns’, but the applicant had been ‘unable to satisfy the key policy tests’ in the submission.

The background:

New lease of life as Budleigh sorting office soldPub and eatery bid for Budleigh’s old sorting officeTown council opposes sorting office conversion plansCouncil opposes plan to convert disused Budleigh sorting office