Controversial plans to build a Premier Inn hotel in Keswick are set to get the go-ahead next month despite opposition from the town council and a 3,300-name protest petition.
Officers at the Lake District National Park Authority are recommending that the plans for a 71-bedroom three-storey hotel with restaurant and bar on the site of the former Ravensfield old folks’ home at High Hill be approved.
In a further blow for objectors, it is also recommended that the decision is delegated to the LDNPA’s head of development management David McGowan rather than go before its members at the next online development control committee meeting on 7th October, denying campaigners the chance to make a presentation in public.
“I am disappointed that is their (the LDNPA) position given the data provided,” said local guesthouse owner Tony Pinnick, who organised the petition and a packed public meeting against the hotel plan.
Referring to the officers’ 51-page report, he added: “It looks very biased and it doesn’t seem to take into account some of the things we believe are important.”
Keswick Town Council had unanimously objected to the plan last week, expressing concern about the size of the development and shortage of car parking – 29 spaces – as well as drainage and flood risk issues.
Keswick mayor Paul Titley said it was a “poor show” if the issue was decided in private by the LDNPA’s professional planners rather than in public by its committee members.
“If they needed 51 pages to come to a conclusion, it indicates that this is a pretty big decision for the town and therefore it deserves more than a rubber stamp, given how sensitive it is,” he said.
The town council had objected to the first Premier Inn plan in February but coronavirus prevented this going before the LDNPA.
The delay saw it replaced by a fresh application with a modified design and new turning circle for visiting vehicles, sending the cost soaring to more than £6 million.
Cumbria County Council had opposed the first plan on traffic and car parking grounds but offered no objection to the current one.
The hotel would create 30 jobs and be the first in Keswick owned by a national chain.
