A £12.5 million project to build a new hotel in York which could create 120 jobs and fund a new link road looks set to get the go-ahead.
Planning officers at City of York Council have recommended approving a scheme by Tiger Developments for a 124-bedroom hotel next to the River Foss, on land which was previously part of the city’s gasworks.
The authority’s planning committee will make a decision next Thursday on the project, which would involve building the last stage of the James Street link road to connect Layerthorpe and Heworth Green. The route is seen as vital to tackling congestion in the city centre, but work stalled because of delays with the wider development of the land.
The hotel would be five storeys high and could include a restaurant, pub or retail unit on its ground floor, as well as a riverside walkway and 91 parking spaces. If the scheme is approved, a gas-holder on the site would have to be decommissioned and removed.
In a report which will go before the committee, Jonathan Kenyon, the council’s development management officer, said the link route and walkway would fulfil “two aspirations” in the authority’s plan for the city, with the road being an “integral part of the council’s highways strategy”.
He said that given growth in tourism in York, the hotel could be built without harming existing ones.
Tiger Developments gained permission to build 158 homes on the site in 2004, but a legal agreement for the development, which would have included the final phase of the James Street link, was never signed and the scheme was ultimately dropped due to the credit crunch.
The council has estimated extending the link road between Layerthorpe and Heworth Green could save £620,000 in its first year of operation and would ease the pressure on York’s inner ring road.
A separate hotel scheme by commercial property firm Broadhall, which would see a 165-bedroom Hilton Garden Inn being built on the former site of the Barbican swimming pool, is expected to go before the council’s planning committee in February.
Hotel road link is a winning formula
ANOTHER day, another hotel. This time plans to build a 128-bedroom, five-storey one on the site next to York’s former gasworks.
Tiger Developments, which owns the land, originally wanted to put up 158 homes there, but that idea faltered when the credit crunch hit. Now planning officers at City of York Council have recommended the new proposal to build a hotel should be approved.
This is welcome news, because the development will also include a much-needed link road connecting Layerthorpe and Heworth Green; the last stretch of the James Street Link Road.
This will ease the strain on York's gridlocked inner ring road and give relief to a heavily congested part of the city, as well as reducing the volume of traffic using unsuitable roads like Mill Lane.
When building work stalled at the site, the council had to look at ways of funding the final phase, which could cost up to £290,000 of taxpayers’ money.
So it is encouraging that planners have welcomed the proposals. Not only will it mean the link road is completed at no cost to the city, there will also be a saving of some £620,000 in its first year of operation.
The current demand for new hotels suggests York’s tourism sector is riding the wave of austerity, but this one will be especially welcome. With a completed link road as a bonus, everyone will benefit.
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