Seafront hotel plans are submitted to the council
Plans for a 116-bedroom Premier Inn Hotel in Bognor Regis have been submitted to Arun District Council.
The application has been made following a public consultation process in March.
Alongside construction of the hotel itself, the plans also provide scope for the construction of an ancillary restaurant and associated works.
Demolition of the former fire station building is included.
If approved, the new hotel will stretch from the current site of the old fire station building – which is attached to the Grade II Listed town hall – around the corner and along the promenade in an ‘L’ shape.
Current plans for the site would reduce the number of car parking spaces at The Alexandra Theatre by 20, leaving the site with a total capacity of 155 spaces.
Although both the hotel and the theatre are set to share car parking, designers explained during the public consultation process their belief that the car park should have more than enough capacity for both, even at peak periods.
The plans also provide for the replacement of an existing access to the car park with a lay-by which would form a natural extension to the existing footpath when not in use.
Deliveries of key items like food and linen are set to take place twice daily, with each visit lasting a maximum of 45 minutes, and the ancillary restaurant will be located on the ground floor.
Whitbread has promised to invest £11 million in the new hotel, which, it claims might generate as much as £2.8 million of annual revenue for the town each year, as guests dine out in local eateries and shop in local businesses.
Plans for the Premier Inn first materialised last year, after Arun District Council members agreed to a landswap deal with Premier Inn owners Whitbread, in order to free-up the company’s long leasehold on the site of The Alexandra Theatre.
The land swap set the council back by £750,000 but paved the way for £12 million Levelling Up Fund works to take place on the venue, plans for which were under public consultation earlier this year.
To find out more about the plans and read the full application, got to the Arund District Council planning portal and use the search reference BR/83/23/PL.