Plans to turn a closed restaurant into a home have been blocked, despite claims the business will not reopen.

A planning inspector has upheld Huntingdonshire District Council’s decision to refuse permission to convert the former Barn Restaurant in Pidley into a home.

The closed restaurant is based within Stroud Hill Park, a former touring caravan park, off Park Fen Road.

The man behind the plans to convert the former restaurant, David Newman, said both the restaurant and the touring caravan park had closed due to the “financial and economic situation affecting them”.

In planning documents submitted to the district council he said: “These businesses will not reopen and this application is for the whole site, change of use for the building – last used as a restaurant – to a residential property and the touring park no longer operating.

“The site licence would automatically be revoked when approval is granted, or it can simply be conditioned that no further operations of touring park can take place.”

Mr Newman claimed there had been “extensive marketing” of the site, but said potential buyers had not considered it to be a viable purchase due to the size of the park and the investment he said was needed.

However, the district council refused the plans to convert the restaurant last year claiming Mr Newman had failed to demonstrate that the restaurant was unable to be brought back into use.

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The authority added that the loss of potentially using the building as a restaurant would “fail to support a thriving rural economy”.

It also said that the loss of the caravan park had the potential to be “harmful to the character of the area due to the scale of remaining land which would be rendered unusable for its approved use”.

Mr Newman appealed to the planning inspectorate to try and overturn the district council’s decision to reject his proposals.

However, the planning inspector said they agreed with the district council’s concerns and dismissed the appeal.

In the inspector’s decision report they questioned the claim that approving permission for the restaurant conversion would automatically revoke the licence for the caravan site.

They highlighted that the whole caravan site was not included within the area of land covered by the appeal.

Because of this the planning inspector said granting approval would not extinguish the lawful use of the caravan site.

The inspector also agreed with the district council that the conversion of the restaurant would “harm the rural economy”.

They highlighted that the restaurant and facilities within the building were also required for the operation of the caravan park.

Due to the inspector’s conclusion that the conversion alone would not extinguish the caravan park use, they said the proposals to turn the main building into a home would “threaten” the park’s viability.

They said: “Although already closed, the permanent cessation of the caravan site would have a negative effect on the local rural economy, including the associated reduction in job opportunities and the purchasing of goods by visitors and the business.”

The inspector said they were presented with evidence that showed the restaurant had a “significant turnover” in 2010, but was making a loss in 2020.

However, the inspector explained that they were only presented with information for these two years and said there was no evidence showing the business had “suffered year-on-year”.

The planning inspector also said they did not have all the information they would have liked about how the restaurant and caravan park business was marketed to make sure that it was appropriate.

The inspector concluded that the proposals did not follow the district council’s planning policies and said the appeal should be dismissed.