A SCHEME for the demolition of the former Portman Building Society headquarters, once dubbed the carbuncle on Marlborough High Street, is set to be approved by Kennet District Council's planning committee.

Today planning officers are recommending that the planning and development committee approve a plan by Beaufort Western Ltd to tear down the old building.

In its place, the Bristol-based developer wants to build a new building with a shop on the ground floor and 12 luxury apartments on the two upper floors.

In the present car park at the rear of the building at 25 High Street, originally opened as the prestige headquarters of the former Ramsbury Building Society in the early 1980s, Beaufort Western intends building 12 cottage-type homes, one apartment and garages.

Beaufort has also put forward an alternative scheme in which the main building is retained with a shop on the ground floor and apartments over, with eight new homes in the car park.

It said this was a cover-all scheme in case planners refused to allow demolition of the main building.

Planning officers are recommending full planning permission is granted for both schemes but have particularly welcomed the demolition of the old Portman building.

In a report they said: "The building is a comparatively recent addition to Marlborough High Street and its design and appearance has not had a positive effect on the street scene. The design of the replacement building is more sympathetic and will present a more coherent and interesting frontage to the High Street than the bland and featureless existing building."

The proposed demolition will end what many have regarded as one of least popular High Street developments.

At the end of the 1970s Kennet planners gave approval for the headquarters building which has since been variously described as a monolithic slab and a blot on the landscape.

One of the strongest criticisms was the huge expanse of brickwork on the west elevation overlooking the adjoining Polly Tea Rooms' single-storey building.

At the time of the construction, the rapidly developing Ramsbury Building Society had outgrown its original headquarters in Ramsbury and considering looking further afield, possibly Hungerford, if it did not get consent to demolish the former Stratton, Sons and Mead delicatessen store, and build a new head office in the High Street.

The building society submitted several schemes before the plans for the current building were reluctantly approved.

Marlborough Town Council and the Civic Society have welcomed the demolition plan and the design of the replacement building Beaufort is proposing

The only objection received is from a resident concerned at the poor access on to the High Street.

The objector, who has not been named, said hotel accommodation on the upper floors would be preferable to apartments.

Planning officers however, say the proposed residential use at the rear would generate less traffic than continuing office use of the site.