THE BISHOP’S Table Hotel in Farnham looks set become the latest victim of the pandemic if plans to convert the historic West Street business to flats are approved.

Waverley Borough Council is poised to determine an application by ‘A Abbosh’ to change the use of the Grade II-listed, 24-bed hotel to seven homes.

The application states the pandemic has “destroyed the business”, and adds the conversion “can be achieved with very limited alterations”, involving “only minor rear extensions to the most modern elements”.

But a number of residents have objected, and the application could be at odds with the Farnham Neighbourhood Plan which seeks to prevent the change of use of hotel accommodation unless sufficient evidence is provided to demonstrate the use is no longer financially viable.

A two-storey Georgian townhouse characteristic of West Street, 27 West Street was built in the 18th century, and has served a variety of uses over the centuries.

It passed through the ownership of the fifth Marquis of Lothian at the turn of the 19th century and later a doctor and a surgeon, before in 1901 becoming a training school for the clergy.

It ceased to be the ‘Bishop’s Hostel’ in 1919 when it was acquired that year by Charles Borelli , a wealthy businessman and property owner, and in the 1930s became Mrs Summers Cox’s Newnham House guest house.

This closed in 1961 and it passed to Oliver Moxon who re-named it The Bishop’s Table.

It has operated as a hotel ever since – and in 2015 underwent a £1 million refurbishment and expansion, taking it from 17 rooms up to its current number of 24.

However, the application for its change of use makes the case that the hotel is no longer viable – blaming increasing competition in the town area, a lack of parking spaces compared to its competitors, and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It states when the hotel was acquired by its current owners in 2007, there were just 99 hotel rooms in the town.

But with expansions at The Bush, and the addition of rooms at the new Premier Inn in Guildford Road, as well as at Northbrook Park, Danielle’s and The Princess Royal, this number has since risen to 252.

“The effect of Covid-19 has been extremely severe,” it adds. “Occupancy rates were already declining in the face of the increased competition and the government’s pandemic restrictions have effectively destroyed the business.

“The effects of an additional 152 rooms available to travellers to the town, plus competitive room rates (driven by national chains) has meant Bishops Table has no viable future.”

The application can be viewed online at www.waverley.gov.uk/planning under reference WA/2021/01400.