Where’s the sense? Businessman slams decision to refuse hotel plan
PLANS for a new budget hotel in Bristol have been denied due to its “unacceptable impact” on the surrounding area.
EasyHotel, which was founded by the entrepreneur behind easyJet, hopes to expand its chain with a new hotel in Old Market.
It filed plans with Bristol City Council back in November, seeking permission to partly demolish existing buildings in West Street and build a 134-bedroom hotel over three storeys.
But the council has rejected the application.
Bristol businessman Andy Thorne, whose family owns the site, says the investment was worth £12million and the council was “crazy” to turn it down.
The council’s written decision said: “The [hotel] would result in unacceptable impacts on the character and appearance of this part of the Old Market Conservation Area, including the local and wider townscape and views.
“The central massing of the proposed building due to its height, massing and bulk, and close proximity to the approved development to the east and neighbouring buildings to the east and west would result in an unacceptable level of privacy, overbearing and overshadowing impact on these neighbouring buildings and their amenity areas.”
A lack of pedestrian and cycle facilities and lack of detail about heating and hot water emissions were other reasons for refusal.
The planning officers’ report noted there had been 12 comments objecting to the plans.
The hotel site stretches back from a building formerly used by Bristol Genuine Seedbank.
It is at 11 West Street, and the hotel plot would take up properties 5-11, retaining the old Swift and Co. facade on the other side.
Mr Thorne, managing director of Thorne Security Ltd, said: “EasyHotel were looking for a premises in Bristol and we got them interested in Old Market. They want to invest £12m into Old Market, attracting people to pubs, clubs, shops and cafes, and they’re turning it down. Where is the sense?
“It’s putting them off investing in the city – and that’s a crime.”
His family, which has conducted business in the area for four generations, own other commercial properties in the area and were founders of the Old Market Quarter’s Gay Village.
Mr Thorne said he found it “unbelievable” and called the council’s reasoning “nonsense”.
He said: “Any organisation that comes along to spend that money in the city, we’ve got to grab them.
“There will be nothing left of the high street if we keep doing this. People have got to understand that our streets are dying.”
He said the hotel would have an “immense” impact and would allow the area to “grow like a flower”, attracting more visitors, more trade and more businesses.
Mr Thorne said in the same time it has taken Bristol City Council to reject the application, easyHotel has got planning permission from Cardiff City Council to open in Cardiff, and already has that hotel up and running.
He said he understood the hotel would have created around 70 jobs, and the hope was to open by spring 2021.
Old Market Community Association, commenting on the plans during consultation, said it supported the budget hotel in principle but the proposal needed “refinement”. It said the hotel would “bring undoubted benefits to Old Market”.
The hotel chain can appeal the council’s decision, but has not yet confirmed if it will.
A spokesperson told the Post: “We are reviewing our options.”
Bristol City Council declined to comment.