Plans have been submitted for the conversion of the former Sherston Inn pub and hotel in Wells, into a boutique guest house with a swimming pool and gym replacing the skittle alley.

A planning application for the change of use of the hotel and residence to boutique guest house and residence, with alterations and extension, demolition of existing skittle alley and replacement with ancillary gym, pool, garden room and office space at the Sherston Inn, Priory Road, Wells, has been submitted to Mendip District Council by Zoe Newton.

Now known as Sherston House, the former pub benefits from C1 use for "Hotels, boarding and guest houses where no significant element of care is provided" and has been run as a hotel with bar licence.

However, over the past five years the previous owners of the property, Punch Taverns, have struggled to make the premises viable, hence the sale to the present owner and applicant.

The current proposal aims to retain the C1 use, but the business will concentrate on accommodation in line with its new role as a boutique guest house and residence rather than a hotel.

The existing residential flat would be retained and remodelled to provide an en-suite bedroom for the owner and proprietor of the guest house that will incorporate previously public space on the ground floor that will become private.

The number of guest bedrooms will remain at five as per the hotel and pub use.

The planning applications says: "The current single-storey building to the east of the main building is a poor quality timber frame construction and was formerly a skittle alley.

"It is now purely used for storage. It is proposed to demolish this building and replace it with a new single and one-and-a-half storey building that will house a gym, swimming pool, garden room and office space.

"Additionally it is proposed to replace an existing tired single-storey extension to the main building to provide more private space."