CONTROVERSIAL plans to change the use of an historic hotel come before planners on Tuesday (November 8). The Grosvenor at Shaftesbury - Grade II* listed and once the grandest social venue in town - could be downsized and part of it converted to 19 flats.

Some groups in the town have raised objections, citing loss of tourist beds just at time when they will be needed.

Cllr Lester Dibben said the application should be turned down.

"It's a major town centre building with star listing," he said.

"It's been, frankly, allowed to deteriorate.

"We have had a leisure consultant tell us that it is viable as a hotel and that's a valid planning reason to refuse.

"With the Olympic Games coming in 2012, this is a golden opportunity to re-establish tourism in the area."

But others have given grudging approval as the only way of retaining the important but rundown building.

Shaftesbury Civic Society says the current proposal would give a reasonably sized hotel, restaurant and public rooms within the original building while rebuilding the "scruffy" rear area as flats which could make the hotel financially viable.

Town councillor Richard Thomas said: "Reluctantly, I would accept this is the best deal we can get - I certainly don't want to see the Grosvenor go.

"But it is sad - it was a grand hotel in the old style.

"In its heyday it was the number one hotel in town, the last of the old coaching inns for which Shaftesbury was famous.

"It was the centre of social life in Shaftesbury even when I first came here in 1993 but it just went down and down and down.

"If it was left any further, my information is that it would probably have fallen down."

Mentioned in Hardy's Jude the Obscure, the gracious three-storey building has been stripped of some of its treasures over the years.

Former owners sold off its famous Chevy Chase sideboard, gilt-framed mirrors and an antique grandfather clock.

Planning chiefs have recommended that the scheme be approved.

First published: November 8