A man’s plan to demolish his house in Marlow and build a new four-bedroom ‘family home’ has been refused.

Planners said this week that they would not grant Mr Matthew Evans planning permission for his proposed new home in the area of woodland off Frieth Road near Marlow Common.

Officers from Buckinghamshire Council said the applicant’s plans did not meet the ‘very special circumstances’ in which building on Green Belt land is allowed.

They said this was because Mr Evans’ new plans would ‘result in a larger building than the combination of the existing buildings’.

In a decision notice, the council said: “The proposal would constitute inappropriate development in the Green Belt… Inappropriate development is, by definition, harmful to the Green Belt.”

Planners said that surveys of the existing house had revealed that bats, a protected species in the UK, used the property for feeding and to roost in the day.

Demolition of the existing buildings would, planners said, disturb the bats and would fail the tests required to obtain a bat disturbance licence from Natural England.

In their decision notice, officers wrote: “The proposed development will have an adverse effect upon the local bat population.”

After demolishing the existing house ‘Coppice’ and an adjacent building, Mr Evans said he planned to build a detached brick and flint barn-style ‘family’ home with three parking spaces.

His plans are an alternative to a previous plan to convert the existing buildings, which the council approved last year.