PLANS to turn a redundant Hampshire church into holiday accommodation have been thrown out.

Members of the New Forest National Park Authority have rejected proposals to convert Woodgreen Methodist Church – despite 16 letters of support for the scheme.

A report to the planning committee conceded that planned alterations to the building would be “relatively unobtrusive”.

It added: “The parish council supports the application as a means of preserving a valued historic building.

“There have also been many letters of support, mainly referring to the local desire to retain the building in good repair.”

But the report suggested that a beneficial community or business use could be found for the church.

“The proposed use of the building as a holiday let would therefore result in the introduction of a new residential use for which no satisfactory justification has been provided. The development would be located outside any of the defined New Forest villages in the national park. Due to the restricted size of the site it is further considered that the level of activity generated by the development would have an unacceptable impact on the character of the countryside.”

The report added that the building was only 400 metres from a Special Protection Area (SPA). “No information has been submitted to demonstrate that adequate measures would be put in place to avoid or mitigate any adverse impacts on the SPA,” it said.