Plans for 'unviable’ village cafe to become home

A plan has been put forward to turn a Herefordshire village café and shop back into a house.

The ground floor of The Stores on the main B4218 Walwyn Road through Colwall near Malvern was converted to shop use “many years ago”, the application says.

The Victorian semi-detached property has been through several recent incarnations, having traded as The Pavilion, The Stores and Bonne Bouche.

But despite “a vigorous marketing campaign”, no commercial buyer for the premises had been found since late 2020, which its distance from the centre of the village “may have had some bearing on”, the application by the property’s owner Mrs A Burkinshaw said.

An accompanying estate agent’s letter explains that though it had been marketed for 14 months to February last year, this drew only two viewings and no offers. This the agent blamed on the current difficulty in securing funding for hospitality ventures, meaning such plans were “not viable”.

The main external difference to the converted property would be the replacement of the large glass windows and doors at the front with smaller windows and a repositioned main door to the rear, “to allow some privacy from the highway and pavement”, the application explains.

Comments on the application, numbered 224007, can be made until February 24.