THE owners of a Llandudno guest house are pleading with planners to let them shut their business.
Helen Giles and Eddie Marston, who run the Hafod y Mor Hotel, on Hill Terrace, want to convert their 12-bedroom guest house into a private property, but they are being blocked by Llandudno Town Council.
The couple applied to the council in May for planning permission to change the Hafod y Mor from a bed and breakfast into a private dwelling. In September, they will have owned the business for nine years, and it has been on the market for four, with the owners also having attempted to sell it at auction last year.
They have found a buyer who wants it as a home rather than a guest house. With Mr Marston suffering health problems and a lack of guests the couple want to give up the business.
But Llandudno Town Council objected because they are concerned about levels of bed-space for tourists.
Owner Helen Giles said she and her partner were "petrified" by the ongoing situation and the possibility that they would be stuck with a business which they could not afford to maintain.
She said "We're both stressed out with it all. We can't sell it or anything. We can't do anything with it, and there's no work coming to town. We've tried really hard to build it up, and now we've got somebody who wants to buy it and turn it into something nice."
Cllr Brian Bertola, who is supporting the couples' application, said they had one opportunity to sell the property and the authorities should not prohibit them from doing so.
He said: "It's having a devastating effect on a couple's lives when they don't need this stress. We should be grateful that someone wants to maintain it as a building.
"What right have we got to play with peoples' lives? If it was a major hotel I can understand, but it's a guest house."
A spokeswoman for Conwy County Borough Council said: "This application is currently going through the planning process - the deadline for submitting representations is July 14."