200 jobs pledge with hotel and offices plan

By pwiltshire

Plans to demolish a derelict 1960s building and replace it with a 200-bedroom hotel and offices have been submitted to council planners.

An investment group says its plans for the former Green Park House old people's home would eventually create more than 200 jobs.

The Green Park Road site has been unused for more than four years and was sold to investment firm New Liberty Diamond for £7.1 million by Bath and North East Somerset Council last year.

The firm - a subsidiary of expanding company Topland - has now submitted three planning applications to the council.

The first is for the hotel, which it says would be a three-star venue with a coffee shop and restaurant and employ 80 people - 50 full-time and 30 part-time.

Separate applications have been put in to demolish Green Park House and to build offices which the firm says could provide work for 138 people.

Topland staged a public exhibition of its £19 million plans last October and says it has worked with the council and Government agency English Heritage to finetune its vision, and has reduced the height of the proposed hotel.

Martyn Stutchbury, a director at Topland's planning agent Scott Brownrigg, said: "There was universal support for the redevelopment of the existing Green Park House building and the overwhelming majority of people thought our design approach was what Bath needed.

"Over the last few months we have finetuned our design, including a reduction in the height of the building. We still aim to provide a 200-bed hotel , an office as well as a temporary urban garden. The development will give an enormous boost to this side of the city centre and give much-needed hotel accommodation for visitors to Bath."

Last year, Topland said it was aiming to acquire up to 50 sites over a 18-month period with a view to developing low-cost hotels and leasing them to operators such as Travelodge and Premier Inn.

The offices would cover 2,634 square metres and have a basement car park with 26 spaces.

Scott Brownrigg says the offices might be used by firms in the IT or finance sectors.

The firm says in documents submitted to B&NES: "The proposal would bring back into active use a vacant, unsightly site close to a key gateway into the city centre. This would bring benefits to the area in terms of visual impact."