Plans to turn a former care home at a historic country house near Dumbarton into a hotel have been criticised by members of the community.

Nitin Satpute, who ran the care home until it closed more than a year ago, wants to redevelop the Victorian property as a hotel and events venue.

Paperwork lodged with the local authority indicates Dalmoak House – also known as Dalmoak Castle – would mainly be hired out entirely for weddings and other functions and at other times operate as a small hotel aimed at wealthy golfing and adventure tourists from India and the Middle East.

But several residents have raised concerns that changing the A-listed building on Renton Road into an 11-bedroom hotel with four function rooms will cause a noise nuisance.

The environmental health service at West Dunbartonshire Council has said the development is likely to ‘cause disturbance’ – but has no legal powers over noise from hotel patrons and does not object to the proposal.

As well as redeveloping the inside the property – which housed the Castle Glen Care and Nursing Home until December 2013 – Mr Sapute wants to create a 24-space car park on the lawn and other smaller parking areas towards the rear of the building.

The council has received six objections, four from residents who have homes in the converted stables block behind Dalmoak house, where Mr Sapute also has a house.

Their list of concerns includes disruption noise from the hotel and events, light pollution and their privacy being disturbed.

Those objecting claim the proposal is against planning policy and that the noise and people could ‘upset livestock’.

A noise impact assessment submitted by Mr Sapute indicates that music in the function room could be limited to a set level to avoid affecting nearby residents.

He also proposes to erect a sound barrier fence to help muffle noise from the car park.

A local farmer has also objected, saying he needs constant access through the site and cannot have the road blocked by cars or buses but the council’s roads department has not objected to the proposal.

In a report set to go before the council’s planning committee today the local authority’s head of infrastructure and regeneration, Richard Cairns, recommends granting permission for the development.

He said: “The proposal involves a change of use which would be an eminently suitable, if not ideal, use for this important A-listed building, but which has an acknowledged potential to give rise to noise in a quiet rural location where even low levels of noise are likely to be audible to neighbours.

“On balance, it is considered that the amenity of Dalmoak House’s historic curtilage, including the amenity of the houses in the former stables, is fundamentally drawn from the high quality of the buildings, and the most important issue in the preservation of that amenity is to ensure the future of Dalmoak House.

“The proposal should secure the future of the listed building, which may otherwise fall into decline. Were that to happen, it is considered that the negative impact upon neighbouring homes would be more significant than the disturbance which may arise from this proposal.” Dalmoak House was built in the late 1860s by the Aitken family. John Aitken was a wine and spirit merchant and the house was known locally at the time as ‘brandy castle’.