A bid to repurpose a village hall for commercial offices has been thrown out by district planners who said the scheme would come at the detriment of the local community.

Sherbourne Park Estate had applied for a change of use for Sherbourne Village Hall, saying the building has barely been used since last September.

The plans would not have seen any changes to the outside of the building, but would have seen some internal repairs carried out.

However, Warwick District Council has refused to grant planning permission, saying the former Victorian school should be kept as a village hall.

"The proposals are recommended for refusal as they result in the loss of a community facility and it has not been demonstrated that the facility is redundant and no other user is willing to acquire and manage it, nor that there is a lack of need for the facility within the local community," a council report said.

"The car parking provision is also substandard."

Four members of the public as well as Sherbourne Parish Council had also objected to the application.

The application said the hall was last used to show Queen Elizabeth II's funeral, and said nobody had come forward to run the building since.

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But the council report added: "In order to demonstrate that no other user is willing to acquire and manage the facility, an active marketing period of a minimum of 12 months must be demonstrated.

"No such evidence has been submitted and therefore it has not been satisfactorily demonstrated that the village hall is redundant and no other user is willing to acquire and manage it."

See the full application here.