Dorville Hotel "skid row" plan condemned

4.35.14pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 31st May 2007

Site of the Dorville Hotel, Weston-super-Mare where a planning application has been criticised by Lib Dem Mike Bell

A new planning application for the former Dorville Hotel in Madeira Road, Weston has been submitted which will see a block of 56 "lower end" flats built on the site.

The proposals have been condemned by local campaigners as totally inappropriate for the landmark building.

Developer Connolly & Callaghan has just submitted a planning application for redevelopment of the hotel site and the neighbouring Georgian villa, and their proposal is to replace the demolished hotel with a new four or five storey building with basement parking. The existing villa will be refurbished. In all some 56 units are proposed - the accommodation will be made up primarily of residential one and two bedroom apartments to provide "lower end market housing for the area". Some affordable housing will also be included.

Mike Bell, the Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for Weston-super-Mare, has led calls for action on the Dorville Hotel site for many years. He said: "The Dorville is a landmark building in the Birnbeck area and it is a scandal that it has been allowed to decay for so long. What really gets my back up is that people from outside Weston come in and buy up sites like the Dorville and then do nothing with them for years on end. The owners have dragged their feet and done nothing and now after years of waiting, local residents must put up with a new planning application for a downmarket block of flats that would be more suited to skid row than the beatiful Birnbeck area."

Former Weston West ward councillor Robert Payne, who lives round the corner from the hotel, said: "There have been some long awaited improvements at this end of town in recent years, and it is vital that the gradual regeneration of the area continues with a quality development at the Dorville. The site has laid derelict for several years now and local residents have had enough of to-ing and fro-ing with nothing actually happening.

"The previous planning application sought to provide high quality apartments and that was rightly supported. So it is most frustrating that it has not been realised. But it is wholly unacceptable to have as many 56 of what the developers themselves describe as 'lower end market housing' on a site of this size. I call on the new council to take a stand against inappropriate development and to prioritise improvements to this important and historic area."

Lib Dem campaigners are urging local residents to write to North Somerset planners setting out their objections. The plans can be viewed at Somerset House or online at www.n-somerset.gov.uk

The developers have organised a drop-in session for residents to view the plans and offer comments from 4pm to 7pm on Tuesday 5th June at the Dorville Hotel.