THIRTY-seven people living on Newport’s Stow Park Circle have objected to plans to turn one of its listed former houses into a restaurant and boutique hotel.

And city planners are recommending that the proposal, from the brothers behind the Italian restaurant Gemelli’s, be refused planning permission due to concerns over parking, access, and the potential impact on bats and trees.

Restaurateur brothers Sergio and Pasquale Cinotti bought Rothbury House last year, but their vision of turning it into a restaurant – with rooms to let upstairs – has attracted considerable opposition.

The £350,000 Grade II listed building dates from the 1800s. Originally a private house, it has more recently been used as a nursing home. The latter closed in 2009, since when the property has been vacant.

Planning permission exists to turn Rothbury House into flats but Pasquale Cinotti told the Argus earlier this year, that would be “a shame” and he has a grander vision.

In addition to the restaurant and rooms plan, the aim is to convert an outbuilding for the manufacture of cakes, a product for which Gemelli’s has developed a reputation far beyond Newport.

Mr Cinotti told the Argus last February that the hotel could bring a “huge financial benefit” to the area and create 32 jobs.

But one resident at the time called the proposal “ludicrous” and raised concerns over issues such as traffic, commercial deliveries, disturbance, anti-social behaviour, signs and smells, all of which and more are mentioned in a report to go before the city council’s planning committee next Wednesday, September 2.

The planners’ report recommends a refusal of planning permission on the grounds that the applicant “has failed to demonstrate that adequate parking provision and access can be provided to serve the development in a manner that does not have a detrimental impact upon the character and appearance of the Stow Park Conservation Area.”

It also cites a failure to demonstrate that the proposal would not adversely impact on protected trees or species.

The latter relates to a protected horse chestnut tree, and the possibility of a bat roost being present in the main building.