Chippenham Civic Society has welcomed an application to develop a mostly vacant part of the town centre.

Eros Properties Ltd has applied for listed building consent to create eight flats upstairs at 13, 14 and 16 Market Place, six with one-bedroom and two with two bedrooms, with two new shopfronts at numbers 13 and 16.

Three commercial units would be retained on the ground floor of the three Grade II listed buildings, which lie between the Bear Hotel and Picturehouse Tattoo Studio around the corner, next to Jolly’s Cafe.

Chippenham Civic Society has been campaigning for the past six months to try to get the buildings repaired, as they are prominent in Chippenham’s Conservation Area.

Membership secretary Roger Backway said: “They are a really nice couple of buildings which at the moment are quite delapidated.

“We favour them being retained as commercial units at ground floor, and residential above as it is a good thing to encourage people to live in the centre.”