AN underused function room at a Shaftesbury hotel could be converted into two new bedrooms.

Makcenzie Wheeler Architecture and Interiors has submitted an application on behalf of the Stay Original Company for the creation of the new rooms at the Grosvenor Arms Hotel in Shaftesbury.

The application, to Dorset Council, is to establish if planning permission is required for the changes to the listed building, at 7 High Street.

“No change of use or external alterations are proposed, and it is understood that planning permission is therefore not required for the proposed internal alterations,” it said.

The Stay Original Company bought the hotel in 2016, the plan said, and has redecorated the premises “to enhance the historic character of the building”.

“The hotel is now trading satisfactorily, has established regular custom and a good reputation in the area and is now able to focus on the future,” it went on.

If approved, the plan would see the first-floor function room converted into two hotel bedrooms, with ensuite bathrooms.

The room is a “historic feature of the layout of the Grade 2* listed building”, the plans said.

“However, it is little used and attempts over the last five years to encourage greater use by marketing the room as an event space, or a meeting room, etc, have done little to increase its use,” it said.

“Its location is distant from the rest of the public facilities of the hotel and the use that it ight be put to is limited by acoustic issues arising from bedrooms being located either side and above the function room.

“It is, for example, accessed off a bedroom corridor and can only be used in the daytime and early evenings as it disturbs adjoining bedrooms.”

The room may previously have been divided, the application detailed.

For more information on the plan, and to comment on the application, log on to www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk and search reference P/LBC/2023/07446.