Trevor Bevins, Local Democracy Reporter.
Eleven new bedsit homes could be created in a Dorchester town centre hotel and above a nearby former bank.
The two High West Street properties are part of a trend in the street for conversions back to accommodation; the original properties initially built as family homes.
One of the applications, for the former TSB bank building next door to the County Museum, is for five flats on the floors above the banking offices, which already has planning consent for conversion to a café/Tapas bar and Pilates studio for Weymouth-based Fika.
At the second property, The Westwood Hotel, at 29 High West Street, the owners want to convert the four-storey building into a house in multiple occupation with six single-person bedsits, the tenants to share kitchen and other facilities. The hotel, also listed as a guesthouse, currently has five letting rooms and boasts near-perfect points in customer reviews on online booking sites.
The application includes the sub-division of the basement to provide a flat for the building’s owner.
A planning agent say the proposal is “a deliberately high-specification scheme — every bedroom with its own en-suite, generous room sizes well above licensing minimums, and an unusually spacious shared kitchen, dining and lounge area — aimed at working professionals seeking good-quality shared accommodation in a town-centre location.”
Dorchester town councillors say they will raise no objection to that application – but have asked for more details on the former TSB proposals.
The town planning and environment committee decided to ask for further details after failing to find any drawings showing the proposed changes to the upper floors of the former bank.
Said town councillor Fiona Kent-Ledger: “This is a listed building but there is a lack of detail in the (Dorset Council) planning portal. There’s not enough information for people to comment on it because there is nothing there to see.”
The meeting decided to ask for extra time to comment to allow for the drawings to be produced.
Both buildings are within the Town Centre Conservation Area with each of the planning applications currently open for public comment under the references 2026/05463 and 2026/04695 on the Dorset Council planning website.
