The permission was granted the day after the applicant signed a planning covenant to ensure that the capital released through the proposed residential development would be reinvested into the hotel.
In February 2024 the St Saviour’s establishment applied to convert the eastern side of the site into seven apartments across the two floors, while the rest of the building would stay as a hotel.
The number of hotel bedrooms would be reduced from 22 to 15.
The applicant told planners that the original hotel had been extended in the early 1980s.
The proposed changes could revert the hotel back to the size it was before it was expanded, and would leave 80% of the building as part of the hotel.
The hotel also told the planners that the plan was to improve the original building from its current four-star status up to a five-star rating, which would require significant investment.
The planners were supplied with a number of documents about the viability of the business. That included accounts for between 2018 and 2023, details of upgrade costs, an insurance valuation and a bank lending letter.
Economic Development, which initially looked at the plans in June 2024, raised concerns about the precedent the change of use could set and had worries about the possibility of the remainder of the hotel being converted.
The committee noted the hotel had already improved from a three-star to a four-star rating in 2022 and already offered a high standard of visitor accommodation.
‘The committee does not support the application for a change of use of part of the hotel and considers that it is technically feasible to refurbish the rooms concerned in this application to meet visitor standards and to increase visitor beds to previous levels,’ it said.
But after further information was supplied in November, the committee supported the change of use application, if there was a planning covenant to ensure the remaining hotel was upgraded and refurbished, prior to the occupation of any of the newly-created dwellings.
The covenant was signed at the start of June, which helped satisfy the relevant planning policies, and permission was granted.
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