AN historic Ross-on-Wye town centre building could be turned into a four-bedroom home under newly submitted plans.
Windsor House in St Mary’s Street is a three-storey, early 19th-century, partly listed building. It was last used by surveyors and auctioneers RG & RB Williams, who have since moved to the town’s auction centre by the Over Ross roundabout.
The planning application, which includes listed building consent, is also being sought for the work and states there would be no external changes under the proposal, with the main changes taking place inside the property.
This includes the addition of stud walls to create en-suite bathrooms to two of the three bedrooms on the first first-floor.
A further bedroom and study would occupy the second floor, with public rooms on the ground floor.
Attempts last year to sell the property for commercial use, at a guide price of £275,000, ‘drew no interest whatsoever’, according to a marketing report accompanying the application.
It blamed a decline in demand for office space following Covid 19, poor internal layout of the building with little option to reconfigure it given its listed status, and lack of parking.
The application points out that the precedent has previously been set as other shops and offices in the town have recently been granted permission for conversion into homes, including the Old Book Shop in the town’s High Street.
Comments on the applications for planning permission (number 241234) can be made until June 14, and on the listed building consent (application number 241235), until June 7.