SUTTON BENGER: A Grade II listed hotel may be partially demolished to make way for four new houses and a village shop with an apartment above, under new plans submitted to Wiltshire Council.

The demolition of The Bell House Hotel, 47 High Street will result in the loss of the area that is used as the cafe and post office.

A new post office will be built into a new village shop planned for the rear of the site.

The owners of the hotel say they are not making enough money to keep the business running with the current set-up.

The plans say: “At present the site offers 12 bedrooms for tourism accommodation based on a bed and breakfast status.

“The proposal will see the use reduced to provide five bedrooms, but with the option of either renting the rooms individually and having the use of the buildings facilities for self-catering accommodation, or the building can be rented as a whole for whole families.

“This increases the flexibility of tourism accommodation offered to potential customers and better reflects how people book tourism accommodation post Covid.

“The building is a large premises, which results in large upkeep and running costs. The proposal seeks to streamline the building.

“To achieve this more efficient result, it is proposed that a large section of the building is demolished.”

The application adds: “a new entrance will be created from the High Street, which will serve four new residential dwellings.

“The dwellings will be built on the existing car park and the grassed area.”

The plans argue: “If the status quo exists, the overall business will ultimately fail due to lack of profitability by the business uses at the site presently.

“The resulting effect would be that the local population will be forced to travel further afield for services once offered by the site (ie the post office facilities), and the village suffers from a lack of services and further economic opportunities.”

WARMINSTER: Up to nine houses are planned for land off Bradley Road.

This proposal seeks outline planning permission for "the erection of up to nine two storey dwellings with garages, revision of existing access onto Bradley Road, internal access roads, parking, shed spaces, bin stores and associated landscaping and infrastructure."

The proposal would look to deliver up to nine dwellings, consisting of a potential housing mix of semi-detached three bedroom houses and one detached three bedroom house.

The proposal would look to deliver one pair of semi-detached affordable dwellings on site as well.

The site is an irregularly shaped area of land, with an area of approximately 0.5 ha and is comprised of agricultural pastural land.

CHIPPENHAM: Plans have been submitted for the upgrading of floodlights for the six tennis courts at Chippenham Tennis Club.

The works will use the existing floodlights poles and cabling but will upgrade from sodium lighting to LED.

This will improve visibility and safety for players and improve energy consumption for the floodlighting system.

EXTENSIONS: Applications have been submitted to extend houses or build outbuildings or convert garages and lofts into habitable rooms at: 11B The Street, Melksham, 19 Union Street, Melksham, 33 Chivers Road, Devizes, 5 Beechwood Road, Chippenham, 17 Burn Road, Corsham.

TREES: Applications have been submitted for work on trees at: 83 High Street, Warminster, 143 High Street, Marlborough, Broadway House, Devizes, Duck House, Hungerford, Church Of The Sacred Heart, Swindon.