A HOTEL in Malvern town centre that has closed down could be turned into housing.

A planning application has been made to convert the Montrose Hotel, in Graham Road, into a town house, with its annex to be retained as holiday accommodation.

The application has been made by Richard Simmonds, who bought the hotel after it closed down about a year ago.

He said: "The people who ran it tried to sell it, but there were no takers. Places like the Premier Inn mean that there smaller hotels just aren't economic any more."

A statement with the application says: "The current hotel is unviable in its present state with the hotel having been marketed more than 15 months in its existing use without finding a buyer willing and able to operate it as a going concern.

"The options for safeguarding the future of the listed building are to either convert to a dwelling or into flats. The dwelling option involves less modification of the existing fabric and provides opportunity to safeguard and restore former details in the conversion, while the annex as a holiday let retains some tourist space in the centre of Great

Malvern and allows an income to be generated to go towards the costly maintenance bills associated with the main building."

Simon Smith, economic development manager for Malvern Hills District Council said: “The potential loss of an established hotel will have some impact upon the serviced accommodation offering in the town, however we understand it has been on the market for some time as a going concern without securing an operator and this proposal does retain some tourist accommodation on the site.

"We are fortunate to have had some significant investment in guest accommodation in the area in recent years so we have an excellent selection to promote to visitors.”

The building which is Grade II listed, is though to date back to late Georgian or early Victorian times, having been built some time between 1828 and 1850. It is thought to have been a hotel or boarding house for most of its existence.