Another bid to redevelop north Northumberland hotel

Another bid to redevelop a former hotel in a north Northumberland village into flats has been submitted.
The former Ryecroft Hotel in Wooler. Picture from GoogleThe former Ryecroft Hotel in Wooler. Picture from Google
The former Ryecroft Hotel in Wooler. Picture from Google

The Ryecroft Hotel in Wooler already benefits from planning permission for the buildings to be converted into housing, but another application has now been lodged.

Efforts to bring the site, on the corner of Ryecroft Way and the A697, back into use have taken place over a number of years, with the long, drawn-out planning saga starting back in 2013.

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In September that year, plans were put forward to knock down the existing building and replace it with a block of 12 apartments, after Commercial First, a funding bank, repossessed the hotel when the business failed and went into administration.

This scheme was withdrawn the following August, before similar proposals, but split over two blocks, were lodged in November 2014.

However, these were refused a year later and the subsequent appeal, in 2016, was dismissed by the planning inspector.

A third attempt in 2017 was the first to be successful as permission was granted for the redevelopment of the disused hotel and outbuilding into residential apartments.

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This approval allows for the main building to be converted into eight one, two and three-bedroom flats across three floors, with two additional storeys to the west and north flanks, ‘consolidating the building footprint as a three-storey structure’.

The existing dwelling and attached garage would be demolished and replaced with two semi-detached, one-and-a-half-storey, two-bedroom properties.

The latest application still proposes conversion of the original building, but into nine two-bedroom apartments, while there would be an added storey to the west and north flanks.

It would be topped with a new dark grey duo-pitched roof to the central section and majority of the flanks while above the additional storeys would be a flat roof with parapet surrounds.

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The scheme also includes the removal of the existing uPVC conservatory and the replacement of all of the windows and doors to the property with new, modern and thermally/acoustically efficient units.

A planning statement suggests that this bid ‘will not have a detrimental effect on the aesthetics of the building, on the wider neighbourhood and has a positive effect in bringing a locally well-known building back to life and providing accommodation to the community’.

Ben O'Connell, Local Democracy Reporting Service