Dorset Council (Dorchester area): Chris Miell has secured planning permission for the change of use of a guest house to a self-contained dwelling on Maiden Castle Road, Dorchester.
The existing detached building has been used as an 6-bedroom guesthouse with owner’s accommodation (Use Class C1) for many years. The current owners had tried to sell the property as tourist accommodation for over year, but were unsuccessful. Therefore, we were instructed to pursue a change of use application to reinstate the property to its original use as a self-contained dwellinghouse (Use Class C3).
Policy ECON6 of the West Dorset, Weymouth & Portland Local Plan seeks to protect existing tourist accommodation. It states “Proposals that would result in the permanent loss or reduction in size of hotels and larger guesthouses will be resisted unless it can be demonstrated that their tourist function is no longer viable and there is no market for the business as a going concern.”
As part of the application, we liaised with the various local estate agents who had been engaged by the applicant to market the property over the past year. Chris compiled the marketing information from the various agents and then prepared a marketing report to demonstrate there was no market interest in the acquisition of the property by other tourist accommodation operators. In addition, we prepared a Design and Access Statement, which set out the merits of the proposal in a clear and concise manner and demonstrated to the LPA that the proposal would comply with the Development Plan.
Upon consideration of the application, the Planning Officer was supportive of the development, concluding with his report that “The proposal complies with policy ECON6. Built tourist accommodation of the West Dorset, Weymouth & Portland adopted Local Plan, the site was on the market for the premises as a tourist function, and details were provided of how the property was marketed, the length of time that the marketing was active and any changes during this period, the asking price, the level of interest and any offers received. Estate agents marketed the property as tourist accommodation from September 2023 to present day, the level of interest was limited and no offers were received.”
If you have a commerical building and would like to seek permission for residential conversion, then why not call Pure Town Planning on 01202 585524 or email info@puretownplanning.co.uk to see how we can help you.