MONMOUTHSHIRE County Council’s Planning Committee will meet next week to consider the change of a Chepstow pub’s ground floor to become a café.

The committee will also look at the conversion and alteration of the pub’s first floor to a flat and an amendment of dwellings in the car park to form a pair of duplex apartments.

This application for The Bridge Inn in Bridge Street was presented to planning committee on October 4 with recommendation for approval, but was deferred back to officers as members felt that the form of the development was not in keeping with the character of the surrounding area.

After the last application, members requested a redesign from the applicant, with the applicant responding that the “current scheme is the result of collaborative working between the landowner and the council heritage planning officers.”

The applicant also said they felt the proposed plans “will be beneficial to the area” and would fit in with the surroundings.

Following the submission in 2013, the application has been through extensive negotiation, and was initially proposed to build two new semi-detached properties of a basic design. However, these were considered to not reflect the character of the Conservation Area nor that of the setting of the listed building.

The proposed scheme comprises the development of two bedroom apartments in the existing car park, with the ground floor of the pub to be converted to form a café and a retail unit.

The first floor of the pub would be converted to a two bedroom flat with the second floor being retained as a one bedroom flat.

Due to there being a possibility of flood risk, the apartments do not have ground floor accommodation and as such all living space is located at first floor level and above.

The apartments would be finished in timber, stone and brick with a metal standing seam roof, and is said to considered “a modern interpretation” of the type of warehouse structures that would have “once been prevalent” alongside the river.

The recommendation for the planning committee is to approve the conversion and apartment builds, which will be decided on Wednesday, November 2.