Former Bank To Eleven-Bed HMO And Shop

The former Lloyds Bank closed in January 2023 and was heading to auction at a guide of around £400,000, with two cottages alongside and all three buildings needing a full back-to-brick refurbishment. The site sits in the Cheddar Conservation Area, and the Market Cross at the top of Bath Street is both Grade II* listed and a Scheduled Monument, so its setting carries the highest level of heritage protection. A prior approval already established that the bank and cottages could become four dwellings, which set the fallback the scheme had to beat.

The recommended scheme is mixed use rather than pure residential. The 45.2 sqm Class E unit stays in place at the Bath Street frontage with its shopfront active, and an eleven-bed sui generis HMO sits above and behind it across ground, first, second and a new mansard. Keeping the commercial unit answers Cheddar Neighbourhood Plan Policy EE1, which resists converting commercial centre properties to residential at ground floor level, and follows the approved approach at 75 High Street in Burnham. The consented 20-space rear car park takes the highways and parking question off the table under Policy D14, and the new mansard sits behind the existing front parapet so the view from the Market Cross junction reads as before.

A Go on the mixed-use scheme. All eleven rooms are en suite and exceed the proxy minimum, from 10 sqm in the mansard to 22 sqm on the ground floor, with a 27.5 sqm communal kitchen and lounge on the first floor and a second kitchen serving the upper cluster. The quantum stays well clear of the 37-bed Hillview Nursing Home refusal. Removing the commercial unit would free space for two more bedrooms, but that upside was deliberately parked: Policy EE1 would need a documented marketing exercise and evidenced vacancy to overturn, so the safer route is to secure the eleven-bed scheme now and return for the extra rooms later.