Plans to convert a coastal barn into a hotel have been turned down due to the site being surrounded by a high flood-risk area. 

Nigel Marsh applied to change the use of the building off the South Beach Road, near Heacham Beach.

Planning papers said: "The proposal is for a small hotel. This is unlikely to cause any transport or highways impacts."

If given the go-ahead, the hotel would have been built within the barn.

But Heacham Parish Council objected. It said: "While the property is apparently now not in a flood risk area, it is surrounded by an area at high risk of flooding.

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"This in effect makes it the same risk, as being in the area, as the only escape route for people caught in a flood is through the flooded area, an unacceptable risk to the safety of people."

And the RSPB said: "Both breeding beach-nesting birds along the shoreline and huge numbers of wintering birds in and around the Wash are impacted by recreational disturbance.

"Increasing the footfall resulting from the proposal, may have an adverse effect on birds and other wildlife."