Organisers of Save The Royal first public meeting say it shows the depth of feeling towards the Georgian building in Ashby's town centre.

Around 70 people attended at the White Hart pub in Market Street last night (Sunday) to make their views known.

The group used the event to sound out people to form a committee going forwards - in a bid to prevent the condition of the Grade II* listed from falling into disrepair and making sure it is brought back into use in some form.

The group was only formed this month as a result of concerns over the Royal Hotel which has been empty for more than four years.

A revised planning application has been submitted by the owners, Oakland Hotels, which has yet to be debated by North West Leicestershire District Council's planning committee.

The application is for the erection of a 30-apartment terrace, office building, cafe kiosk and 69 bed care home with associated car parking access, landscaping and associated access amendments.

But there remains opposition to those plans with Ken Ward, of Ashby Civic Society, describing it as 'brutal architecture'.

The meeting was supported by the three town councillors representing the Willesley Ward, Cllrs Barbara Kneale, David Bigby and Geraint Jones.

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Concerned residents have also been urged to email Ashby de la Zouch Town Council with suggestions about the best way forwards with the building. Councillors can be contacted at [email protected].

The meeting also heard that the bill for renovating the hotel could be as much as £6million.

But a number of options were considered including community ownership with representatives of Coalville CAN Community Benefit Society also attending.

People at the meeting were invited to back the campaign by becoming a Group Supporter of Save The Royal or a Steering Committee Member.

Nik French, one of the group organisers, spoke after the meeting and told Ashby Nub News: "We heard lots of opinions because it's an emotional issue.

"The hardest thing is filtering it down to being practical, which is what we got out of the night.

"We have to this officially, with a committee, it's no good saying we're a group of people who agreed to meet up. We need to elect officers and tick boxes, belt and braces stuff.

"The test will be when we have a committee formed, and we want to do that with a lot of haste and urgency.

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"We need to meet quickly because of the existing planning situation.

"The group has only been formed since early January, maybe three weeks now.

"I posted online about the Royal and then so did Pejman Zamani, who originally offered his restaurant as the venue for this meeting. I said we should do something about it and the group was formed.

"A lot of people signed up really quickly, so we had to get some kind of focus.

"We didn't want this to be a clique. The turnout was good considering it was short notice and we had to change the venue."

Nik said the turnout and range of opinions was proof that there is a strong desire to restore the Royal.

He added: "I've grown up with the Royal in Ashby, like a lot of people have.

"I lived here most of my life, and had my son's Christening in the Royal. My brother worked there. Most people have some memory of it.

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"Unfortunately, we've lost a lot of Ashby's heritage.

"As was pointed out at the meeting, this isn't just a Grade II listed building, this is a Grade II 'star' building.

"That means it's special and we cannot let the building disappear.

"But it's a question of what that looks like, so we need to explore that quickly."