Plans for a luxury barn conversion in the birthplace of Lord Nelson have been approved despite outrage from locals who described it as a "very special place of national importance". The cluster of rural buildings in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, will be turned into a luxury home after West Norfolk Council approved the development, which is nextdoor to the Grade I listed All Saints' Church, where the Royal Navy officer, who was fatally wounded at the Battle of Trafalgar, was baptised after his birth in 1758.

Locals argued that the barns had sat untouched for decades and were a tourist attraction in their own right, bringing hordes of history buffs to the village each year. Council officers said the development plans would help to preserve the character of the site, however, and provide a "long-term viable use" for the buildings. The approved plans included scaled-down amendments such as the removal of a proposed swimming pool.

The charge against the project was led by Lady Anne Glenconner, who lives in the small Norfolk hamlet and was maid of honour at the late queen's coronation in 1953.

She said: "This very special place of national importance is under threat from a planning application to change the use of historic barns immediately adjacent to the church, which provide the quintessentially English rural setting to this most special of places."

"Those seeking peace and prayer in the church yard will be presented with a swimming pool, car parking area and terrace with large picture windows," Queen Elizabeth II's old childhood friend added.

"There are other positive uses the barns could be put to [as a] means of conserving them which [does] not produce just another large, ostentatious and exlusive residence which achieves nothing for the local community or its environment."

Other residents likened the development to the new-build conference centre Southfork Ranch in the US, made famous by the 1980s soap Dallas - using the comparison to support their argument of the project's incongruity with its countryside surroundings.

"This is a totally inappropriate development that will affect our national heritage," one said. "This village is special and a development on this scale will destroy the historic and cultural legacy of one of Britain's greatest sons."

Another criticised it as a "playground for the wealthy" that would "do nothing to enhance the area".

In a planning document, the developer said the main barn was in "a very poor structural state", suggesting that the driving force behind the project was "to find a viable option to allow the significant expense required to repair the group of barns and bring them back into use".