Another former drinking venue in central Swindon might be turned into flats.

But neighbours don’t seem to be in favour of the idea.

Arkell’s Brewery, which owns the former workingmen’s club The Cycle Club in Dixon Street in the centre of town has applied for permission to knock the building down and build a four-story block of eight flats on the site.

The brewery wants to construct three two-bedroom apartments and five with one bedroom in block, resembling a large house, with three floors and a basement.

The application to Swindon Borough Council’s planning department says: “The site is, due to its accessibility and sustainability, a location where development is directed and encouraged.

“This will assist in addressing the borough council’s current five-year housing land supply shortfall.

“An opportunity exists to lay out the building in a fashion that will retain and reflect the character of the street and the grain of the surrounding urban area, [and] to ensure that the new flats created exhibit and appearance that reflects the character of the local area.”

While most of the street is filled with late 19th or early 20th century terraced houses, wo buildings next to the club at 35 and 37 Dixon Street are also more modern apartment buildings, with 6 and five flats respectively, with steeply pitched roofs and gabled windows.

The drawings of the proposed new block shows a similar style with three windows in the roofline for the top floor flats with gables over them. The façade of the building will be rendered with edging in brick to ‘reflect a palette form the local vernacular.”

The application adds that the existing metal railings on Dixon Street will be removed and replaced with ornate new black metal railings.

Three objections have been sent into to the planning department to the scheme.

Alan Gaunt wrote in saying the existing club building should be kept, He said: “This building should not be demolished - it forms an important part of the street's architectural heritage which cannot be replicated by any new building, no matter how sympathetically that building may be described.

“If there is a proven and demonstrable need for flats at this locality, the building should be converted. Otherwise it should be re-purposed with an appropriate use for the area.”

Other objectors were concerns about parking and the impact on neighbours.

Ana Kelly who lives near Dixon Street wrote: “Such a big development will overshadow neighbouring properties to all side and impact on privacy

The street cannot cope as it is with two-way traffic, with cars mounting the pavement to allow two- way traffic. There are not sufficient parking spaces for current permit holders - even if the flats are not allowed permits, it is probably residents and their guests will risk parking on the street. This will have negative parking repercussions in the whole Zone D parking area in which I live. We need more family homes.”

Another objector, Michelle Lowrie wrote: “Whoever has applied for this planning application has no idea about the location. This is already an extremely difficult area to negate and park in. To build multiple living spaces would be neglectful to the existing residents and deceitful to the potential occupiers of these flats. We are not London and there is no need to install this kind of sub-class, desperate development in a location so completely unfit for purpose.”

The plans put forward by Arkell;s can be viewed through the planning portal on Swindon Borough Council's website using the reference S/18/1523

The deadline for comments on the application is Friday November 2.