NINE Dorchester town centre homes are to be created with changes to a pub and adjoining empty shop site.

The former Autobitz shop in High East Street will be knocked down and re-built during the redevelopment with a new access created to the rear and new homes built leading down to the Mill Stream.

Next door Tom Brown’s pub will be refurbished internally with the exterior remaining unaltered, apart from the conversion of the rear of the building to a house.

A traditional shop front is planned for the Autobitz site to complete the look – which architects claiming that the overall changes will improve the street scene in the town centre Conservation Area.

Dorchester Civic Society, while welcoming the changes, remained uncertain about some of the design details, while Dorchester Town Council said it was in favour.

Said the Civic Society in its statement on the proposal: “The retention of Tom Browns pub, with the addition of new dwellings, will help to revitalise this end of what was a long-neglected High East Street… The new dwellings in the back-land have an imaginative feel about them.”

The Society claimed the new shopfront on the Autobitz site “sadly replicates the bland style of what was accepted in the 1960's”.

The rebuilt Autobitz building will have four flats above with five homes in the grounds to the rear with a new side access for pedestrians only created off the street.

Overall the redevelopment of both sites will create 4 one-bed flats, 6 two-bed homes and one 3-bed, all listed as open market housing – with two flats remaining in place above Tom Brown’s, creating nine new homes.

The application comes from Nylo Homes Ltd, which has been responsible for developments in Preston Road, Weymouth and in the north and east of the county.

The application attracted three objections – claiming a loss of light and overbearing impact on neighbouring properties, ‘harm’ to the town’s heritage and landscape and the potential of a fire risk.