Planners have turned down an application to use a boat store in Lime Street, Brightlingsea for light industrial use.

Brightlingsea resident Clare Richmond wanted permission from Tendring District Council (TDC) to use The Little Boatyard for printmaking and joinery.

However, planners said that the design of the building was out of keeping with “the prevailing rural context” and that the proposed use would “intensify the vehicular use of Lime Street”, an unmade road which is also a public right of way.

They also decided that the building would “harm the character and appearance of the rural landscape, and that there was no “compelling  functional or operations need for the proposed building and use”.

In her application, Ms Richmond said that although residential use of the property had previously been refused – and dismissed at appeal – it was her “hope that this will be possible at some future point.”

Brightlingsea Town Council and six local residents objected to the plans, with three in support.