A row has erupted over the colour of a historic hotel.

Alex and Katie Clarke are fighting to keep the 16th century inn the same colour after a council said it “adversely” affects its character.

The Clarkes had to completely refurbish The George in Rye after it was gutted by fire in 2019. The couple, who have owned the Grade II listed hotel since 2004, carefully renovated the building, which is a prominent feature of the town’s High Street, over three years.

But they were shocked when their retrospective planning application for the retention of the building’s new brown external colour scheme was refused by Rother District Council.

They have appealed against the refusal and the matter will be considered by the Planning Inspectorate.

Mr Clarke said they painted the hotel brown in 2021 because a council conservation officer, who was also the project’s planning case officer, suggested to them to paint it a different colour to its former grey-white shade.

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“We’ve only repainted it the colour they suggested in the first place,” said Mr Clarke.

“We’ve only done what we’ve been asked to do.”

Research was carried out by heritage paint consultant Catherine Hassall, whose report, the couple say, shows The George had been a range of colours in the 19th century, including the  brown shade it is now.

“If you look down the High Street in Rye there are plenty of other buildings that are not white,” said Mr Clarke.

“It’s a perfectly legitimate heritage argument to review original colour schemes of a building and use an original historical colour palette.”

Mr Clarke said they could not wait for the planning approval to come through before they began work on the building because it would have “further deteriorated” and was affecting the town due to the amount of scaffolding encasing the building.

“We needed to give people back their jobs,” said Mr Clarke.

They said "as far as they were concerned" they had the council's support for the colour due to the conservation officer’s approval and were keeping the officer up to date with each stage of the work.

Mr Clarke said if he is ordered to repaint the building this would put “significant” financial pressure on the business, which employs 75 people, and would disrupt High Street due to the scale of the work needed to repaint.

He said it could cost in the region of £100,000.

“We’re trying to get the business back to what it was before the fire and it’s a difficult economic time for everybody,” said Mr Clarke.

A Rother District Council spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that an application for retrospective planning permission in relation to the external paint colour of The George in Rye was refused. An appeal has been made to the Secretary of State against this decision and we are unable to comment further whilst this appeal is ongoing.”

Mr and Mrs Clarke have urged people with a link to Rye to support their appeal.

People can submit a comment or letter by emailing the Planning Inspectorate at East2@planninginspectorate.gov.uk referencing: APP/U1430/W/23/3324343 and APP/U1430/Y/23/3324344.

The deadline for submitting a comment is Monday, January 15.