A BID to convert a stable block at an historic Borders hotel into four stylish new flats has been withdrawn after a heritage society raised concerns over the plans.

Ednam House in Kelso was built in 1751 and today operates as a hotel.

The house’s two-storey stable block dates from around the same period and is located along Oven Wynd.

The building is currently categorised a ‘moderate risk’ on the Building Register for Scotland, with many rotten window frames and with an unsafe internal stair.

An application was submitted to Scottish Borders Council (SBC) for the redevelopment of stables to a flatted development with four units proposed over three floors and access to provide each unit with maximum daylight and private garden ground.

The plan was to retain the original character of the stables through an “entirely sympathetic” redevelopment.

That application is now marked ‘withdrawn’ on SBC’s planning portal after an intervention from  Edinburgh-based the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland.

A society spokesperson said a “viable use for this ruinous building is welcome” but said the proposals submitted “risk compromising the setting of the A-listed hotel and the view of Kelso from the showground, walks, and road approaches to the west”.

The spokesperson adds: “As proposed, the existing roofline to the garden front would be entirely replaced by blocky elements not characteristic of the surrounding buildings.

“This elevation, in particular, needs to better reflect the pitched nature of the existing roof, to read primarily as a pitched roof rather than as a terrace with block-like massing.

“This does not preclude a more contemporary approach, but the new development needs to have massing appropriate for this prominent site even when nearby trees have lost their leaves, or eventually are no longer present to mask the site.”