A FORMER hotel in Pencraig could be replaced with a development of 12 dwellings if Herefordshire planners approve the scheme.

Mount Craig Hall is part of a settlement of approximately 45 homes and was converted to 13 one and two bed apartments approximately 40 years ago.

This proposal is for the demolition of all buildings on site and be replaced with 12 dwellings comprising a mix of one, two, three and four bed properties broadly on the footprint of the existing building.

Mount Craig Hall was originally a farmhouse dating back to the early 19th and was converted into a hotel during the 1930s and subdivided into several apartments in the 1980s.

It was purchased by the applicants Paramount Homes Ltd approximately 35 years ago. At that time the property was already in use as apartments having already been converted, extended and significantly altered from its hotel status.

In recent years, the applicants attempted to carry out renovation works to several apartments, but this revealed major structural defects in the walls partly caused by extensive dry rot which has culminated in them ceasing any further works.

This has resulted in four apartments been condemned as uninhabitable and the applicants are now struggling to obtain valid Energy Performance Certificates for the remaining apartments due to poor insulation and electrical work.

Whilst the application is in outline form, it is anticipated the dwellings will be conventional two storey in height and so lower in height than the existing building. Each dwelling will also have a commensurate size garden with adequate parking.

The agent, CDB Planning and Architecture, states that the re-development of the site will enable the construction of energy efficient homes supported by low carbon heating system in the form of air source heat pumps, solar panels and electric vehicle charges points.

The current complex is served by an old septic tank system with two inadequately sized drainage field soakaways, which is particularly inefficient in drainage and phosphate terms.

The considerable alterations and additions that have been made to Mount Craig Hall over the decades have detracted from the architectural coherence and significance of the building with most of its original features being removed rendering it to be regarded as being of low heritage significance.

Comments on the application, number P253678/O, can be made on Herefordshire Council’s planning portal until Thursday, February 12.

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