Harry Potter star Rupert Grint and his family are planning to convert their North Hertfordshire home into a new 15-home sustainable development.

With six apartments in Kimpton Lodge and an additional nine homes in the grounds, the plan promises "sustainable building from construction to day-to-day running".

Grint rose to fame for his role as Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter film series, cast as Weasley at the age of eleven - and if he is allowed to transform the estate into new housing, some of the land would be gifted to the community in the form of a park and circular walk, and a picnic area for members of the public.

The homes would sit on a wooded hillside to the north-west of Kimpton village centre, on green belt in Luton Road, around seven miles as-the-crow-flies from the edge of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

A document detailing the plans reads: "The proposals seek to restore an old building within the green belt, saving it from further decay and damage."

It adds: "To improve openness within the green belt, the proposals appear much smaller than the existing storage barn and outbuildings due to careful use of topography and intelligent design.

"Nestling the houses into the topography and within the walled garden reduces the form of the proposal."

The report suggests primary school children would be allowed to visit the site to use proposed forestry school resources.

Not everybody is happy with the plans. "I have no problem with what they are going to do with The Lodge and the buildings already on the site," said Davina Malcolm, chair of Kimpton Environmentalists.

"But the point of the green belt is that nature is allowed to recover and that nature gets its own space."

An objection by a Mr Pepper reads: "There cannot be any possible justification for a development of 15 residential units on a site located in the green belt and in a conservation area."

Following "media interest" into the application, district councillor Ralph Muncer (Con, Kimpton) has said he would like the council's planning committee to debate the proposals at a later date.