Almost 50 bedrooms are to be added to a Preston hotel near the M6 after city planners gave the green light to a revamp of the facility.
The Premier Inn Preston East, on Bluebell Way – close to junction 31A of the motorway – will see its former restaurant converted into new overnight accommodation, while a three storey-extension will also be added to the building.
The changes follow the closure of the Norman Jepson Beefeater eatery on the site in the summer.
Twenty new bedrooms will be housed within the extension, while 32 will be contained in the former restaurant space. With three existing rooms being lost as part of the overhaul, a total of 49 extra bedrooms will be created – taking the hotel’s capacity to 116.
Whitbread, the parent company of both the hotel and restaurant brands, sought permission for the expansion after identifying demand for budget-priced accommodation in the area.
A new “breakfast room” will also be developed which will serve food to hotel guests at the start and end of the day, but will not be open to the general public.
Preston City Council planning officers said they welcomed the design of the extension as a “seamless addition” to the current building, finished in the same materials. A narrow corridor will connect each of the existing floors to the new adjoining space.
A report setting out the reasons permission was granted for the redevelopment states: “The proposed extension and existing hotel [are] set back from the street scene significantly and, given the isolated location of the site, its raised elevation above Bluebell Way and the surrounding vegetation, the proposed development is largely hidden from view.”
Lancashire County Council highways bosses raised no objection to the plans, which will see 14 car parking spaces lost – but 129 remain.
Whitbread decided earlier this year to sell 126 of its least profitable branded restaurants – including Beefeater and Brewers Fayre outlets – and convert 122 others into hotel bedrooms. Around 1,500 jobs were lost as a result of the shift in strategy.
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