A former Dorchester Scout hut is expected to be converted into a home.

Dorset Council has given planning consent for the changes to the former Scout headquarters off Lubbecke Way.

The Scouts were told back in 2019 that it could have cost them £100,000 to update and maintain the building, which they had stopped using for meetings in 2018.

Papers submitted to Dorset Council say the site would make a three-bed home, across two linked buildings, with parking for two cars.

Dorchester town council and ward councillors Stella Jones and Molly Rennie both welcomed the application which Cllr Rennie says would make good use of a redundant building.

Agents, Crickmay Stark Architects, say the new buildings would retain the same footprint as the existing buildings, originally built as a water pumping station, connected to a smaller adjoining timber building. The timber building would be replaced with a new zinc-clad building of similar size.

The former pump house would have the living accommodation with a kitchen on the ground floor and the living room within a mezzanine level, with the bedrooms within the smaller extension, linked to the main house.

The site has been used by the Scouts since the 1950s but became too costly to maintain and suffered from a lack of outside space suitable for Scouting activities. The site has been sold to Skelly Construction from Portland with the proceeds from the sale used by the Scouts to develop a new meeting and training centre for the organisation.