New airport hotel plans approved
02.08.07
Plans for new 80-bedroom hotel near Durham Tees Valley Airport have been approved, despite objections from the airport. As previously reported, Peel Holdings, who operate Durham Tees Valley, believe the hotel will hit its own plans for a 100-bedroom airport hotel, approved earlier in the year.
The new hotel will be built by Northcare Development on land north of Cleveland Motor Homes, near Middleton St George. Approving the application, Darlington Borough Council's planning committee said that they were concerned with planning issues, not commercial ones.
Dave Trimingham represented the airport and told the committee: 'The airport is committed to large investment in facilities. We need some certainty about the environment in which that investment is made. There are two hotels at the airport, planning permission for a third, this would be a fourth, and there could possibly be a fifth.'
'Liverpool Airport, for example, has 5 times as many passengers but only 2 hotels [but with planning permission already granted for 2 more, which he seems to have failed to mention]. The airport is concerned that these proposals jeopardise the hard work put into the airport by itself.'
A spokesman for Darlington Borough Council's planning department told the committee: 'It is not the job of the planning system to choose between competing proposals. It is a commercial competition matter, not a planning matter, and couldn't be a reason for refusal.'
The committee voted 8 to 3 in favour of the new hotel. It is not known when work on building, due to be three stories high in an 'L' shape, will begin.
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