PLANS to turn the Pheasant Hotel on the London Road at Winterslow into homes have been submitted to Wiltshire Council.

This is the second attempt to develop the site for residential use following the hotel’s closure two years ago, which was blamed on the decline in the pub trade and in passing traffic using the A30.

Records show there has been an inn on the site since the 1700s, when it was known as the Winterslow Hutt. A spring close by made it a useful stopping place for drovers, and later for the coaching industry.

Its most recent operators, Whitbread, are said to have run the hotel at a loss, and efforts to find another buyer keep it going - top chef Marco Pierre White is said to have shown interest at one time – proved fruitless.

Planners have been told that community or business use of the site have been ruled out because the site is considered to be too remote to be sustainable.

Now the aim is to turn the main building into two three-bed and two four-bed family homes, and to convert the stable block into a single-storey three-bed home. Solar panels would be built in, with the aim of providing 20 per cent of the energy needed for heating and hot water. And all the home would have large gardens.

The scheme is out for public consultation until December 17.