A landlord has been told his pub isn’t pretty in pink and will have to get it repainted after it breached planning laws.

Rob Cowan first changed the colour of the outside walls of the Woolpack Hotel in Tenterden High Street to heritage pink, a lighter shade of the colour, in the spring of 2014.

But Ashford Borough Council’s planning officers wrote to him ordering him to repaint the pub back to white or apply for planning permission to change the appearance of the listed building.

They served an enforcement notice to change the colour of the pub in December 2014, which sparked a petition and appeal to let Mr Cowan keep it pink.

He lodged his appeal in February last year, but there were delays because a qualified planning inspector had to be found to hear the case.

In January this year he described his frustration at the delays, and said he and his patrons were being kept in the dark about the process.

But yesterday Mr Cowan said he received the judgment, which has found in favour of the council’s planning inspector.

He said: “I have read the decision, and I think it is quite a lazy decision. It’s a little bit frustrating but it is not surprising.

“I have to accept it because I can’t afford to spend the absolute fortune on going to the High Court to appeal over which colour I could do.”

He said he will now liaise with council planners to repaint the pub, and admits that while he wanted to repaint the walls annually, he decided not to cause more controversy while his appeal was still being heard.

He added: “The new colour will almost certainly not be a colour that I would be happy with. An annual colour change would have been our way of marketing and branding our property.

“We had universal approval from all but a couple of detractors in Tenterden. Shops can use their shop windows and displays to market themselves, but for us the colour of the pub is our way of marketing, so it is disappointing not to be able to use the colour changes.”

Planning inspector Katie Peerless wrote her judgment on Wednesday, February 17. She explained that Mr Cowan did need to get permission to change the grade II listed if it affected the character of the building.

She wrote: “In this case, the colour of the building is noticeably different to that of the surrounding historic development.

“The pink colour is not one that would normally be used on historic buildings in this area of Kent and it draws attention to the property, setting it apart from its neighbours in a manner that would not occur with a more neutral shade.”

She added that if Mr Cowan wants to repaint the building in any other colour apart from the previous shade of tarrow white, then he will need permission to do so.