Plans to turn a "dilapidated" Warwick shop into a family home have been thrown out by district planners who labelled the scheme "unacceptable".

The application, submitted to Warwick District Council (WDC), would have seen the vacant shop on Smith Street turned to residential use to create a "family home".

Plans state the grade II listed retail space has been vacant since October 2022, and repurposing it would "improve the appearance of the street".

However, WDC planners said the scheme would harm the "vitality and viability of the town centre".

"The submitted information is not considered to be sufficiently complete or robust to demonstrate that a thorough, suitable and sustained marketing campaign to identify a retail tenant has taken place and failed," a council report said, refusing the application.

"Whilst the local planning authority acknowledges the changing role of town centres and the need to be more flexible in the range of uses in some circumstances, it is considered that the proposed residential use...would have a detrimental impact on the vitality and viability of the town centre, an impact which would be exacerbated in the event of other similar applications which would be more difficult to resist in the event of an approval in this case."

The conservation officer has supported the fact no external alterations were planned and said "the proposal would have a neutral impact on the listed building and conservation area".

But planners said simply preserving the building was not enough justification for the change of use.

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"The conservation officer's comments stating that it would be beneficial for the listed building to be occupied are noted, however, this benefit of the proposal is not sufficient to outweigh the in principle retail objection set out above," the report added.

"Indeed, it is not accepted that the ground floor unit could not successfully be occupied by a Class E [retail] use."

See the full application here.