Plans submitted to Mendip District Council to convert a furniture store in Wells into a residential property have been withdrawn.

A planning application for the conversion and extension of existing retail warehouse/storage building to a dwelling and the creation of a building to the rear to be used as ancillary accommodation, plus creation of new vehicular access through the existing car park at 43 South Street, Wells, had been submitted by Wells Estates.

The building has been occupied by the Household Comforts furniture store and South Street Antiques and Interiors.

The proposal had looked to retain, refurbish and extend the warehouse/workshop facing South Street for residential use and to remove all the more recent existing buildings from the site to the rear and to construct a residential unit facing a small courtyard providing car parking and access.

If the application had been approved, it was planned for the main building to be converted to a three-bedroom residential unit with a single-storey extension to the rear, and to take down all existing buildings to the rear of the site and replace with a low rise annexe to provide additional residential accommodation placed alongside the west boundary.

The application said: "Concern was raised that the proximity of the rear hall of the social club (presently in use as a skittle alley) would be intrusive to the siting of a new dwelling on the adjacent site in part as the social club has windows facing the site and in part due to noise during social club opening hours.

"While this is true that the existing relationship may be problematic, we note that the applicant is also owner of the social club and therefore has control over means of mitigation of potential noise/nuisance and he is therefore looking to review in terms of existing windows and acoustic performance of the fabric so as to provide a suitable environment for a new dwelling.

"The scheme places the new annexe building backing onto the boundary in part which will assist in reducing impact and form part of the overall mitigation strategy."

Vehicular access to the property would have been created through South Street car park.

In the late 1980s, a planning application was refused for the site for a mixed development of offices, shops and residential, and a subsequent appeal was turned down.

And now the Mendip District Council planning portal confirms that the current application has been withdrawn by the applicant, though it is not known at this stage whether it will be resubmitted at a later date.