An ambitious scheme to convert an historic building and build 11 more homes on land in Wotton-under-Edge has landed before Stroud District Council.

But immediate local reaction suggests the road to approval may be bumpy.

Gloucester architects Roberts Limbrick, on behalf of global engineering group Renishaw – the town's biggest employer – has submitted a vision of how land between Old Town and Long Street in the Cotswold town would be redeveloped.

Historically recorded as an area where pigs were kept, the land, immediately adjacent to Renishaw's Old Town factory, is currently used as an overflow car park for Renishaw staff and tenants to local flats and houses.

Accessed from the B4058 in Old Town, in its more recent history the land overlaps the site occupied in the 1900s by Dursley engineers RA Lister and it now sits within the town's conservation area.

In all, the project seeks to convert a former Sunday School house (which has been used more recently for practice by Wotton Silver Band) into two dwellings, further adapt an office/storage building to deliver two more and additionally create a large new building, which would comprise 11 more homes.

A quota of 30% affordable housing would be within the scheme, a Design and Access statement indicates, while the new residential block with the two refurbished buildings would deliver 15 dwellings "through a mix of one bed, two-bed and three-beds.

Parking for 32 cars is also indicated, six being for retained spaces for adjacent properties, and 15 having EV-charging points, plus parking for 26 bicycles.

The statement added: "The new build is a two a half storey, pitched roof building, with two storey pitched roof and single storey flat roof elements."

Online local reaction to the proposals suggests the scheme is likely to be contentious, with questions being raised over whether the homes will be open-market, or reserved for Renishaw employees, as per a recent new build project nearby in Packhorse Lane.

However, Lynsey Powell wrote: "Better on a brownfield site than a greenfield one."

Another resident has also written to object over the issue of traffic congestion in Old Town.

They wrote: "The conversion of these buildings into so many apartments would greatly increase the number of cars in what is already a bottle neck area. I don't have confidence the proposed development will be sympathetic to the Old Town aesthetic.

"Wotton is a beautiful, historic area that needs to be preserved and protected. In addition, the construction vehicles and site access needed for such a large scale development project will render the road (and therefore access to Wotton) virtual unusable for residents and visitors."

Internal documents within SDC for the application also suggest the proposed new build element may encounter resistance.

SDC's Conservation Specialist wrote: "This surviving green space is an important contributor to the character of the conservation area it reflects the historic use of the land, both as Sunday school garden and parish glebe. The refurbishment of the historic buildings is welcomed, though the fine details will be further assessed as part of the listed building application. The conversion of the Sunday school is likewise non-contentious.

"However, I do have concerns regarding the construction of the new apartment block A. The open ground to the west of the former Sunday School is an important piece of open land which contributes to the verdant nature of this part of the site. It also reflects the historic land use and ownership. The character of the open space would be wholly eradicated and transformed into a site with a large, modern block that takes no reference from the scale, massing and detailing of the historic construction surrounding it.

They added: "The proposed Block A would, by virtue of its scale, massing and design, appear as an incongruous modern addition, at odds with its historic surroundings and visually obtrusive."

A Long Street resident also told SDC: "There is no parking in Wotton now. The [Symn Lane] car park was a total flop, and now local elderly residents are struggling to get their needs met because of the central parking issue. This affects district nurses, carers, and mobile services like chiropodists."

● No date is as yet set for a decision but a reply date by May 7 has been issued to stakeholders.