Councillors will next week be recommended to give the go-ahead for plans to redevelop the Royal Hotel site in Ashby - but only if a series of conditions are met.

The proposed scheme will see 17 town houses built at the Station Road site around the Royal and next to the Bath Grounds.

After being submitted in September, and amended in March, the application is due to go before North West Leicestershire District Council's planning committee meeting on Thursday (July 20).

The council's recommendation is to permit the development - but with 32 conditions to be met by the applicant, Oakland Hotels, and a section 106 agreement - which is between a developer and the local planning authority over measures that must be taken to reduce their impact on the community.

Councillors will be presented with a detailed document consisting of more than 80 pages at the meeting, then debate which direction to take their decision.

The council says the application is being brought to the Planning Committee at the request of the Strategic Director for Place due to the significance of the scheme in relation to the restoration and re-use of the Royal Hotel a Grade II* listed building.

Eventually, the plan is to restore the Royal Hotel, which has been empty for five years, and bring it back into use.

The Royal Hotel in Ashby has been empty for the past five years

However, Historic England questioned the financing of the project last month and Ashby Civic Society has raised objections in previous consultations.

But a district council report by Cushman & Wakefield said that the plans represent 'a sensible commercial basis that allows additional capital to upgrade the hotel'.

Ashby de la Zouch Town Council said it wants assurances that:

• the District Council is satisfied that the proposed development of the 17 town houses is the minimum development which is required to secure the restoration of the Royal Hotel building
• the District Council is satisfied that the hotel will be a viable business following the proposed restoration based on the number of bedrooms and projected occupancy rates
• the District Council has a sufficiently robust legal arrangements in place to ensure that funds raised from the proposed development are used for the restoration of the hotel building
• the profits claimed by the developer in the financial statement are reasonable within the framework of 'enabling development' and the viability of the planning application itself
• the loss of 81 trees on the site will be addressed
• the allocation of 63 car parking spaces for the hotel is reviewed – this has been increased from the original plan but still lower than the 75 car parking spaces as specified by the Highway Authority
• the proposal for the hammer-head turning area for refuse collection vehicles is revisited and an alternative solution found (the current plan implies a loss of car parking for users of the Bath Grounds, including the cricket club and also raises practical concerns regarding access by members of the public to the current parking area
• the Town Council also raises concerns that the view of townhouses from the Bath Grounds is significantly imposing upon the Royal Hotel listed building when they should be subservient to it. The Town Council would request that the developers and local authority revisit the plans to ascertain if they could be altered to readdress the balance.

 The details of the planned development are:

• 17 townhouses with 10 provided to the north of the hotel on the former car park associated with the Royal Hotel and seven provided to the south of the hotel. Units 1 to 3 would be 3 bed properties with accommodation over three-storeys and units 4 to 17 would be 5 bed properties with accommodation over four-storeys. The townhouses would be provided with dedicated off-street parking
• The provision of a 63 space car park to serve the Royal Hotel which would be constructed to the south of the hotel.
• The soft landscaping of the grounds associated with the Royal Hotel. 
• - Alterations to the existing vehicular accesses onto Station Road set to the north and south of the hotel. - Provision of a southern access road between Station Road and the Bath Grounds.

Demoliton work to carry out the first stage of the Royal's restoration is being carried out at the moment. Photo: Ashby Nub News

The Civic Society has also said the positioning of the new houses next to the Bath Ground may lead to a reduction in events in Ashby.

But the council officer's report will set out to answer some of the questions that have been raised about the proposed development.

Responding to claims the Royal Hotel would be dominated by the new houses, the report says: "Whilst the townhouses would be visible in conjunction with the Royal Hotel, it is considered that the approach to the design would ensure that they would be subservient to the hotel and not detract from its importance within the streetscape or from views within the Bath Grounds."

Answering suggestions there will be no room for the hotel to expand in the future, it adds: "The development proposed is the minimum necessary to meet the conservation deficit to enable the restoration and re-use of the Royal Hotel. It has also been determined by the applicant that sufficient land would remain available to serve the hotel to meet future business needs."

It also addresses the Civic Society claim that events on the Bath Grounds would be reduced due to noise affecting residents. The report says: "The Council's Environmental Protection Team have not raised any objections to the application or indicated the need for the development to provide measures to mitigate against events held on the Bath Grounds. It is also the case that existing residential receptors within Rawdon Terrace and on Warwick Way, Belvoir Drive and Bamburgh Close already have a similar relationship with the Bath Grounds. 

"If a statutory noise nuisance was to arise, then this would be investigated separately under Environmental Protection legislation with it being the case that future occupants would be aware of the relationship with the Bath Grounds and cricket club prior to their purchase."

The removal of 81 trees is also addressed in the report, adding: "The impacts arising from the removal of the trees is accepted. Given the financial constraints associated with meeting the conservation deficit it would not be possible to fund the planting of trees elsewhere."

A artist's image of how the new homes would look. Image: BHB Architects

It continues: "The design of the townhouses is considered to be appropriate, with them positively responding to the streetscape whilst also removing the former car park of the Royal Hotel which at presents impacts adversely on the streetscape.

But it adds: "Special regard shall be had to the desirability of preserving the setting of a listed building and the character and appearance of the conservation area.

"It is also considered that the design approach would not compete with the architectural approach to both the Royal Hotel and Rawdon Terrace given the use of differing materials and the design detailing. In this context it is considered that the proposals would enhance the character and appearance of the Ashby De La Zouch Conservation Area."

But the council has responded to the Cushman & Wakefield report into the possible future of the Royal in terms of the cost of renovation.

It adds: "Cushman & Wakefield, and in particular their Head of Investor & Developer Services, Hospitality, has outlined that Ashby De La Zouch is a small tertiary hotel market with limited hotel demand orientated towards leisure tourists.

"The Royal Hotel is a small hotel which typically will appeal to individual investors or small private hotel companies who will operate the hotel directly without the need to be linked to an international hotel chain.

"The reputation and quality of the hotel product and service, rather than the recognised brand over the door, being critical to its success.

"On this basis buyers for such hotels will make a judgement on the mid to long term returns that the business might yield based on the acquisition price and the further investment that may be required.

"Investors will make judgements on the total investment based on the likely future performance of the hotel so that the hotel is commercially viable.

"If there is significant investment required to a property than this can be off-putting to the investors, who typically seek immediate return on capital employed.

"The market will therefore value the asset accordingly.

The proposed view from the Bath Grounds. Image: BHB Architects

"Therefore, a buyer for the Royal Hotel might decide not to invest the necessary funds to improve the property (returning to a good condition) preferring a business rationale that seeks to maximise operational profit from spending the least possible.

"It is difficult to say that the hotel would not attract a buyer if offered for sale, but it is fair to say that the amount of investment a buyer would be happy to commit, once the asset has been acquired, might be minimal and certainly not enough to refurbish the hotel to a good condition.

"It is also considered likely that any buyer of the Royal Hotel would consider the surrounding land as being valuable for development, thus commercialising the investment.

"Doing this would at least, in part, help fund more extensive improvements to the hotel. Hence, it is difficult to see how another buyer would not seek to secure alternative development, in the same way that the current applicant is seeking.

"C&W consider that the current proposal seeking 'enabling development' provides a sensible commercial basis that allows additional capital to upgrade the hotel.

"This therefore appears the most likely way in getting the property back into habitable order and protecting the future of the Royal Hotel.

"Although the submitted planning statement has not referred to other potential funding sources, and it was requested by the Council's Conservation Officer that this be considered, it is understood that most donors do not deal with privately owned companies. This therefore means that the availability of funding is extremely limited as well as being extremely competitive."