Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Retirement home planned as city ‘doesn’t need hotel’
aclaridge@thekmgroup.co.uk Kent County Cricket Club has exchanged contracts with retirement home developer McCarthy and Stone as it prepares to redevelop part of the St Lawrence Ground.
It will carry out a public consultation before putting in a planning application to the city council.
The cash-strapped club is constantly looking for new ways to make money, but earlier in the year it abandoned plans for a hotel and conference centre on the ground in Old Dover Road.
In recent years, the club has sold off part of the ground for a Sainsbury’s store and forged a branding deal with Shepherd Neame to call it the Spitfire St Lawrence Ground after one of the brewer’s beers.
Kent chief executive Jamie Clifford said: “We have spent a number of years marketing the ground in the hope that we might be able to see a hotel developed.
“It has become clear in the last 12 months that this is now very unlikely to happen, hence the change of direction.
“McCarthy and Stone is a leader in its field and I look forward to seeing a high quality development at the ground.”
South Canterbury is already served by established hotels such as the Ebury and Abbots Barton and will see the opening of the Premier Inn on the former Blockbuster video site later this year.
David Sharma, owner of Howfield Manor Hotel at Chartham Hatch, says a hotel at the cricket ground was always unrealistic.
“It’s unlikely the club would have got the financial backing for a hotel,” he said.
“Furthermore, Canterbury Cathedral may be the fifth or sixth most visited place in the UK by tourists from overseas, but they don’t tend to stay in the city. We are not even in the top 20, whereas places like Reading and Inverness are. The upshot is that we don’t need that many hotel rooms in Canterbury.
“The city could sustain another hotel here but only if the tourist organisations and the council can persuade more people to stay overnight.
“The only time you can guarantee full occupancy is during the universities’ graduation ceremonies.”
Does Canterbury need another hotel? Email kentishgazette@ thekmgroup.co.uk or write to Gazette House, 5-8 Boorman Way, Wraik Hill, Whitstable, CT5 3SE.