Chiseldon: A plan to turn an empty shop into a restaurant has been turned down by Swindon Borough Council’s planning officers.

PK Kansal who owns PK Properties said the empty unit at 34 New Road in the village was no longer viable because of internet shopping and supermarkets.

The lack of parking for the building and also the likelihood of cooking fumes and smells annoying people living nearby, several of whom had written in to object to the plan, persuaded planners to refuse the application

Highworth: A proposal by Chris Kane to convert the ground floor of the former Lloyds Bank building in the High Street can go ahead.

Mr Kane has been given approval to make the space a mixed-business venture with a tourist information office, museum, craft shop and nail bar.

He says his proposals will not change the exterior of the Grade II listed building, which dates back to 1832, either at the front or back in any way.

Mr Kane has already been given permission to turn the upper floors of the three-storey building into three flats, with one office remaining on the first floor.

New Eastern Villages: The hopeful developer who wants to build 300 houses just east of the Wanborough Road as part of the New Eastern Villages expansion of Swindon must conduct an environmental impact assessment.

Hannick Homes had asked the borough council whether such a measure was necessary before putting in a formal application for permission.

It wants to build the houses on farmland directly off the Wanborough Road, just south of its bridge over the A419 and behind the Poplars Day Nursery.

It is immediately south of the huge proposed Lotmead development of 2,500 houses.

Although Natural England said it didn’t think the building would have an impact on very sensitive landscape or habitats the council’s ecology officer said there had been no serious survey of the farmland conducted and asked for a baseline study to be done, with extra work to follow if sensitive habitats are found.

Badbury Park: The details of the appearance and layout of 56 houses to be built as part of the next phase of the major development have been approved by council planners.

Persimmon Homes already has permission to build the small estate (pictured) in the northern part of the last area of the development to be constructed – a site in the corner formed by the A419 and the M4.

As part of that approval it still has to submit plans on how the houses would look and be set out. Planners have signed off on the scheme to for a mixture of flats in low-rise blocks, semi-detached houses and three-storey town houses to be arranged around a central street running north to south.

Town centre: Developer Bartosz Laskowski now has double permission to transform a family house in Sheppard Street near the railway station into a shared home of multiple occupation.

Mr Laskowski was given the go ahead for the change of use and work for his original proposal earlier this month. Before that consent had come through, he submitted another application showing there would be two en-suite bedrooms on the first floor and two on the ground floor, along with a shared kitchen and dining room.

The occupant of one room will have to go through the shared spaces to reach their private lavatory and bathroom.

Extensions and Conversions: Approval has been given for extensions or loft or garage conversions at 15 Meadowsweet Close, Haydon Wick; 12 Sandstone Road, Priory Vale; 4 Manor Park, South Marston; 73 Marney Road, Grange Park; Toll Cottage, 33 Meadow Way, Badbury; 11 Skye Close, Highworth; 10 Shrivenham Road, Highworth; 45 Larchmore Close, Haydon Wick; 14 Donnington Grove, Lawn and Grove Hill Residential Home, Grove Hill, Highworth.