A VILLAGE pub near Taunton could be converted into holiday apartments if plans are approved.

A planning application has been submitted to Somerset Council to change the use of the White Hart Inn, in Corfe, to residential.

The pub was previously designated a community asset, but has lain empty since 2020, the application said.

Corfe Estates Ltd said: “The public house was listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) August 2021 following the successful nomination by Corfe Parish Council.

“However, following a failed attempt to exercise the Community Right to Bid, the council delisted the public house in 2023.”

Although the council is understood to have resubmitted a bid for the pub to once again be designated an ACV, the application said Corfe Estates has “instructed legal advisers to engage with the council in order to ascertain what new or updated evidence has been submitted in support of this repeat nomination, in consideration of the previous failed attempt to purchase the property by the group”.

The current owner has “no intention of regenerating the public house”, it added.

If approved, the plans would see a skittles alley to the rear of the building demolished, with a new outbuilding constructed to house two bedrooms.

The existing pub building would be subdivided to create eight-bedroom accommodation, with an access between the two structures.

Car parking and landscapong would also be carried out at the site, on the B3170.