New life could be breathed into a former Tywyn mortuary site if planners agree to a scheme to build an eco home.

Gwynedd Council has received an application to demolish the building and a closed toilet block on National Street for a plan to build a “Passivhaus” dwelling.

The plans would see the demolition of the buildings at Cae Bach, now part of Pentre Poeth, to make way for the building of the new house subject to planning permission.

The application has been submitted by Kath Charters through agent Arwyn George of George & Tomos Penseiri.

The old mortuary is described as a rectangular, single story building which is no longer in use.  It was a former telephone exchange but later became the mortuary for the town until its disuse.

It was later sold as part of a cull of buildings in a cost cutting exercise by Gwynedd Council, along with the disused adjoining public toilet block which had been closed for many years.

At the time of sale, more than a decade ago, estate agents had mooted the buildings’ potential uses as the world’s smallest theatre or cinema.

The new house design will feature rendered walls and timber cladding, a slate roof, Upvc windows, and timber clad aluminium windows and doors and solar panels. There would also be a new boundary wall of stone, vehicle access and hard standing with gravel porous paving.  Plans for the garden includes native planting and swift boxes.

The proposal describes the plans as a  “a small-scaled development” and notes that no formal public consultation has taken place. However, it states the applicants are an “integral part of the community” and have communicated their plans and spoken with neighbours and local councillors.

“The new house will provide a new sustainable home, at a modest, affordable scale, that will be a positive addition to the town now and in the future,” the application says.