A FORMER pub car park where couples were “captured having sex on CCTV” can be screened off from public access, planners have ruled.

The owner of the former Nags Head Inn in Longhope claimed security cameras installed in the car park – which is crossed by the historic Gloucestershire Way walking trail – had filmed people driving in off the busy A40 road and having sex.

Robert Macey, who has converted the pub into holiday cottages, said condoms had been found discarded on the ground, while other incidents caught on CCTV included people urinating in the bushes, junk food litter disposed from parked vehicles and dog fouling.

Last year, he applied to install a 1.8m fence around the car park, and to divert the footpath around the site, which is across the road from the former pub, before withdrawing the plan for further discussions with Forest planners following several objections.

Now his amended plan for fencing and a lower 1.2m high laurel hedge in front has been approved, while planners raised no objections to rerouting the walking trail around the side and front, although it still needs separate approval.

In his orginal application, Mr Macey said: “One of the many reasons for the fence is that, since we have installed security cameras and started works in July 2018, we have observed many issues with the car park and have footage and pictures…

“We have witnessed cars parking opposite in the evening with couples having sex… (people) having lunch and/or food like takeaways and throwing their leftover paper out into the bushes… (and) passers by pulling into the car park and urinating in the bushes.”

Dog walkers had also been spotted allowing their pets to use the car park on Ross Road as “a toilet”.

“We have many incidents we would be happy to show anyone who would like to see them; it’s not fair that we have to clean up this mess after people.”

Longhope Parish Council at the time expressed safety concerns over the proposed fence being close to a sharp bend in the busy road, but raised no objections to the amended scheme.

Neighbours Paul Snell and Ruth Wortley still questioned the need for a high fence potentially obscuring the access near a “very tight bend”, while a pair of gates had been put up before any planning permission was granted, they claimed.

A resident said the fence would be a “blot on the landscape in a beautiful country area”.

“Access for vehicles into and out of the former Nag’s Head pub overspill car park is already extremely difficult,” she said.

She also objected to a “large, ornate gate, out-of-character with the setting” which had been put up.

“Walkers of the Gloucestershire Way currently use the footpath here as the start of their walk to the summit of nearby May Hill,” she added.

“If changes are to be made to the site they should surely be to enhance its ecological value, not undermine it,” he said.”

Another objection included that permission for the car park was originally granted for pub users, and it should now be used by walkers as well as holiday cottage guests.

But planners ruled there would be no “adverse impact” on visibility for people using the car park or to the appearance of the rural area.