Town councillors have maintained their objections to plans to turn a set of empty offices into three new homes.

Planning permission for the office block on Victoria Road was approved in February 2020, as part of a bigger application to build seven houses and the employment site.

However, with the office block still having received no takers since being built, D J Kelly Homes Ltd has applied for permission to repurpose the building.

This is the second application to change the use of the premises, following an unsuccessful attempt in 2022.

"The commercial unit had been completed prior to occupation of residential units and has been extensively marketed as office premises since January 2021," the application said. 

"In 2022, the applicant was approached by a dance studio looking for premises, however accepting them as a tenant would have contravened the terms of Conditions 3 and 4 of the above permission."

It added: "Since the refusal of the [previous] application the property remained on the market however very little interest has been expressed by commercial buyers or tenants. 

"At the same time, sales of residential properties marketed by the same agent have been negatively affected by the presence of the vacant commercial element within the development and the uncertainty of what business may occupy this building."

However, this latest application has also been met with a flurry of objections.

Originally the scheme was for four new homes, but the designs have since been changed to create three apartments.

However, Frome Town Council has maintained its objection to the application.

"The marketing of the offices has not been carried out thoroughly," the council's objection said. 

"Furthermore, the houses do not meet national space standards, do not have gardens or other amenity space provided, and parking is awkward. 

"It does not meet Somerset parking standards, either. 

"Finally, as the site has been developed in two parts, this application would result in 13 houses on the site without triggering the affordable housing contributions necessary for developments over 10 dwellings."

See the full application here.