EIGHT home could be built on the car park of a pub that was "decimated" by the Covid lockdowns.

The owners of the Blackbird Inn, at West Buckland, decided last summer to close and operate instead as a licensed bed and breakfast.

Peter Welling and Yvonne Mulvihill are applying to Somerset West and Taunton Council for change of use permission for the B&B.

In a letter to council planners, they say: "We made the decision in summer 2020 that the best way forward was to change the business model and direction to stand any chance of future success and future employment of staff.

"With the coronavirus making business virtually impossible, dwindling regulars and locals, something had to change to make the Blackbird a viable future business."

They add: "Since we changed to a bed and breakfast, serving evening meals to residents only, business has been steady, growing and profitable again."

Along with many in the hospitality industry, the couple have found it hard to recruit staff to help run the business.

"The Blackbird Inn Licensed Bed and Breakfast (as now called ) has worked amazingly well, although a reduced income, the benefits are considerable when it comes to costs.

"We have recently applied for a change in status with the local authority to change from A4 to C1 in accordance with our planning application to use the land opposite to develop much needed housing in the area.

"We have parking adjacent to the property for eight car spaces and there is space to the front for two/three cars. This means that we don’t need the parking opposite and is often empty, along with the paddock."

The couple, who bought the "struggling" pub in 2018, made a number of improvements to attract more trade, only to be "decimated" by the impact of Covid and the lo;ckdowns.

Visitors leaving their cars in the car park opposite the Blackbird building needed to cross the busy A38, which the owners called "a vert dangerous proposition", with cars often coming round the corner at 60mph.

They wish to build eight semi-detached, three-storey town houses on the old car park