Newport homes plan delayed by condition of historic hotel
Plans to build town houses behind an historic hotel are being held up because of the condition of the main building, its owner has said.
Developers behind the renovation of the Royal Victoria Hotel in St Mary’s Street, Newport, say a new planning application for a newly-designed rear to the building would be submitted to Telford & Wrekin Council in the coming weeks.
But in the meantime, work is waiting to continue. Developer Roger Brock is behind the project to save the rundown site, which has been vacant since 2015.
He said he was keen to begin construction on the town houses but conditions to protect the hotel itself were causing problems.
By removing certain conditions – many of which will be replaced with the new planning application – Mr Brock hopes work can begin soon.
“We’ve advanced things with Morris Property in Shrewsbury,” he said.
“We’re within a few days of signing a building contract with them so that they can start on the town houses. But to sign that we’ve got to get resolved the pre-development conditions.
“A whole host of those conditions only attached to the hotel building.
“We’ve put in an application for those conditions to be removed so work can continue.”
In the coming weeks, a new application for the hotel will be submitted to Telford & Wrekin Council, including new designs for the rear of the building.
Mr Brock said: “They put a box design on Central Square in the middle of the town, and everybody hates that. For the first application the heritage officer was keen on that look.
“I do a lot of heritage stuff and I was frankly appalled. I think we’ve come up with a much nicer design that is going to be in keeping with the facade on the front.
“We’re trying to collate a complimentary look on the area which looks over Victoria Park.
“We’ve had a terrific response to the new designs. If planning permission is granted on the newly-designed rear, it’s going to be the start of a lot of hard work for contractors on the site.The building and the roof isn’t in the best of conditions,” Mr Brock said.
“We’re going to have to have a lot of work to do. But it’s got to have the right design. Everybody loves the Victoria facade.
“We need to do something complementary on the rear elevation.”
