Budget hotel plans back on the table
Appeal against refusal lodged by developers
DEVELOPERS have lodged an appeal against West Berkshire planners' refusal to build a budget hotel on Hungerford's Charnham Street.
The proposal is for the development of a hotel providing up to 65 bedrooms, an ancillary restaurant and associated works including car parking, landscaping and new access from the A4 on land adjacent to the Herongate Leisure Centre at Charnham Park.
The refusal was made last July on the grounds that the hotel would be contrary to the designated use for the land set out in the Local Plan and also that the applicants had failed to mitigate the impact that new hotel employees would have on local amenities.
Hungerford Town Council had objected to the proposal on the grounds that it was contrary to local policy, the design was poor and the designated land use was not intended for a hotel.
Town and Manor Trustees also objected on the grounds of the likely adverse impact on existing local hotels, light pollution and potential drainage andecological problems.
In a report to planners, the West Berkshire Council case officer had said: “On the one hand the scheme has much to commend it - it is of an acceptable design and scale, it presents no highway problems on the local network, is in a relatively sustainable location and will provide some local employment opportunities plus of course a new hotel for the town which may be expanding in the future.
“On the other hand, there remains a fundamental and in principle policy objection to the scheme being clearly contrary to a saved and well established local plan policy, which in turn is supported by the Council's employment land survey. The application is thus recommended for refusal on this basis plus the technical lack of an obligation to meet public open space and library funding opportunities.”
However the agent for the application, David Murray-Cox of The Barton Wilmore Partnership, said that the design of the hotel was the “correct approach” to building modern structures in historic towns such as Hungerford.
The three-storey hotel would be an L-shaped block, set further back from the A4 than the existing Undys Cottage, which lies just to the west of the site, with a 65-space car park behind the building.
Now the contrversy is to be resurrected after an appeal was lodged against refusal. The matter will now be decided by the Secretary of State for the Environment.
No date has yet been set for the hearing but written representations can be made by any interested parties, including local residents, by sending them to the Planning Inspectorate, 3/19 Eagle Wing, Temple Quay House, Bristol BS1 6PN by no later than March 1.
