Nonsuch House hotel plan now has 50 rooms, and the council's public protection team has objected

The plan to turn fire-gutted Nonsuch House at Bromham into a boutique hotel now proposes 50 hotel rooms across the house and its estate buildings, and the council's public protection team has objected because no noise assessment was submitted.

Nonsuch Estate Ltd applied to Wiltshire Council for planning permission, reference PL/2026/04847, and listed building consent, reference PL/2026/05223. Both were validated on 21 August 2026 and are open for comments until 30 October. Nonsuch House is listed at Grade II*. A fire on 17 February 2022 destroyed its whole roof, the attic storey and almost all of the first floor structure, according to the historical assessment submitted with the plans. The masonry shell survived.

Fifty rooms, up from 45

The application form gives 50 hotel rooms. The pre-application scheme described in the planning statement's appendix had 45 bedrooms. The market and viability assessment's chosen option puts 18 rooms in Nonsuch House and its east wing and 32 in converted estate buildings. The transport statement, revised in July 2026, still models 45 beds: a 17-bedroom hotel with 28 beds of short-stay accommodation.

A new Welcome Building would hold a reception, a cafe and restaurant, a bar and flexible event space, according to the design and access statement, with a gym, treatment rooms, an indoor pool, a sauna and a steam room. The form lists 1,455 square metres of new buildings, including a yoga studio and a boat house, and 1,996 square metres of converted floorspace. It also proposes 22 full-time jobs, up from two, and 75 parking spaces. Elsewhere on the estate, a house called Denbanks would be demolished and replaced with two houses.

The design statement proposes natural slate for the rebuilt roof. It says parts of the original roof were natural stone, but the fire destroyed those coverings, so a like-for-like reinstatement is no longer possible.

What the form says about work already started

The application form asks whether the development or work has already been started without consent. The applicant answered yes and gave a start date of 1 April 2026. It answered no to whether any work had been completed without consent. The form does not say which works began.

Objections from council teams and neighbours

The public protection response, filed on the register under the title "Environment Agency's Comment", objects because no noise impact assessment was submitted. It lists the hotel, restaurant, bar, event space, wellbeing facilities, padel courts and 44 air source heat pumps across the development, and asks for an acoustic assessment before the team can support the scheme.

The council's highways officer objected in principle because the site relies on cars, but said the proposed junction on the A3102 and the parking numbers would otherwise be acceptable. The officer added that any permanent use for large events such as weddings would need more analysis and possibly a right-turn lane. The rights of way team said the restaurant part of the Welcome Building and the car park would obstruct public footpath BROM2, which would need to be diverted. The ecologist said the preliminary ecological appraisal was more than two years old and that recommended badger, great crested newt and reptile surveys had not been provided.

When checked on 29 September 2026, the register for the planning application showed 14 public objections and one comment in support. A planning consultancy objected on behalf of local residents. Objectors raise the scale of the development, traffic, noise and the effect on the setting of the listed house. Bromham Parish Council and Historic England had not published responses.

The market and viability assessment gives an average room rate of £250 and 70% occupancy, but its revenue and cost figures are blank in the public copy on the register.

The Gazette and Herald reported the hotel plan on 3 September. The details above come from the submitted documents and consultation responses. See the planning application on PlanIndex and the listed building consent application.