PUB chain JD Wetherspoon’s bid to open hotel rooms in Poole town centre has been turned down after it failed to enter an agreement with the council to reduce the nitrogen impact on Poole Harbour.

The refused plans were for 14 hotel rooms on the second floor of The Lord Wimborne pub in Lagland Street, including an extension to provide a lift.

It is understood that Wetherspoon does not wish to pursue the scheme further at this time.

Poole council planning officer Kate Robson said the town centre was “an appropriate location for hotel accommodation” in a report outlining her decision.

She also said the creation of hotel rooms would “better utilise the available floor space of the building”, which currently accommodates a two-bedroom flat for the pub’s manager and storage areas.

However, despite these benefits, the plans were refused as Wetherspoon ‘failed to ensure the development is nitrogen neutral’.

The council has a planning policy based on nitrogen reduction in Poole Harbour, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Protection Area and a Ramsar site.

“The assumption is that anyone staying in serviced tourist accommodation is visiting from outside of the Poole Harbour catchment, and the impact of these visits through the generation of additional sewage and consequential nitrate loading must therefore be mitigated,” Ms Robson said in her report.

To counteract this, she said, Wetherspoon would have to purchase around an acre of agricultural land or pay the council nearly £9,600 towards the cost of land.

Alternatively, it could have provided ‘alternative technologies’ to remove nitrogen.

However, “they will not be entering into any agreement to secure this”, she said.

An additional contribution of £1,035 would have also been required by Wetherspoon to mitigate the recreational impact of its development on the harbour.

But the company has not agreed to this contribution either.

In its planning application Wetherspoon said that the creation of hotel rooms would “benefit tourism and commerce” within Poole while making use of an unused area in the building.

The rooms would have been a mixture of twin, double and family rooms.

Wetherspoon had also planned to build an extension to house a lift for the hotel rooms.

However, the council expressed concerns over the impact of construction work for the proposed lift on two nearby protected trees. This was another reason for refusal.

The nearest existing Wetherspoon pubs with hotel rooms are in Bridport, Salisbury and Warminster.

Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said: “Wetherspoon has informed the council that at present it is not intending to progress with the development at the pub.”