THE Red Hart Inn at Llanfapley is to remain a public house/dwelling house - for the time being.

The owners of the Red Hart had applied to Monmouthshire County Council for a certificate of lawful use of the building as a private home - but officers recommended refusal, and members of the planning committee agreed.

But the applicants' grand daughter Harriet Klymchuk told the committee, "Refusal of this application will not diminish this, we will continue to live in our property. It is a deplorable situation that a family is expected to take photographs every time we do something."

Her remarks came about because planning control officer David Swanson said evidence had been provided with declarations from Mr and Mrs James Sharp and their daughter that the use of the property as a public house ceased on October 1, 2002. But he said no evidence has been provided in the form of dated photographs or receipts for the work to corroborate the witness statements.

She said all the conversion work in changing the two former bars into a dining room and living room had been done by themselves so no receipts for the work would be forthcoming.

Mr Swanson said further evidence has been provided with declarations signed by Mr and Mrs Parker of Hostry House, Llantilio Crossenny, Mr and Mrs Scarpetta of Ebbw Vale, Mrs Perry of Pandy and Mr and Mrs Flower of The Trekkers, The Narth but they could not be satisfied on the evidence that was presented.

Local residents who object to the application claim the declarations have all been written by the same hand, complete with spelling mistakes, and do not provide personal experiences tied to dates.

Mr Swanson said evidence had to be produced that the Red Hart had been purely a domestic dwelling for at least four years. They said this had happened by Christmas 2002 and the bar was removed in 2005 - 06 but objectors said they had seen a bar in place in 2007.

The local member, Councillor Brian Hood said there was a great deal of interest in this application.

He said a decision by the Supreme Court in April on applications for a certificate of lawfulness stated that if the applicants had made efforts to conceal what had taken place it should not be given.

He said the curtains or blinds had been drawn across the rooms which were once used as a public house and locals had never seen any light in these ground floor rooms. There was no evidence of them ever using the old pub area but since the application had come in the curtains were drawn back.

Miss Klymchuk said this was because they had a new puppy and it had chewed the curtains.

Philip Marchant for the Red Hart Supporters' Group said their hope was that sooner or later someone else would take over the Red Hart and run it as a pub again.