Alton Towers Resort have been granted planning permission by Stafforshire Moorlands District Council for the proposed extension to the Alton Towers Hotel.
As is typical with planning applications of this scale, permission has been granted subject to a number of conditions. It has been stipulated that the hotel extension will not be able to be brought into use until the planned additional parking facilities have been put in place, and a full travel plan detailing proposals to promote “acceptable and sustainable modes of transport for both employees and guest” has been submitted to the planning authority. There are also a number of conditions relating to ensuring the environmental impact of the development is kept to a minimum, and that the materials used are in-keeping with those used on the current Alton Towers Hotel.
Set to be located to the rear of the current Alton Towers Hotel Gardens, the new extension will consist of four storeys with a new restaurant catering for 200 covers, large children’s seating area facing a stage, café and bar on the ground floor, and 76 bedrooms on the ground, and first to fourth floors – 65 will be standard rooms, 3 will be accessible, 6 will be standard suites and 2 will be accessible suites. Each room will feature a main area consisting of a double bed and small seating area, a separate sleeping area for children containing a bunk bed and pull out truckle bed, and a bathroom with bath and shower. Guests will enter via a new entrance to the east of the extension.
The exterior of the new extension will include a walled sunken garden, plus areas of the existing hotel gardens will also be refreshed, including a new waterfall to feed the pond which will replace the existing water feed. In order to keep the new accommodation in-keeping with the existing buildings the external appearance will maintain the ‘English Colonial’ theme of the current Alton Towers Hotel. The entrance to the Woodland Walk will be able to be accessed via the ground floor café. An additional 98 car parking spaces will be created on what is currently grass between the Alton Towers Hotel and Enchanted Village to accommodate the increased accommodation capacity and will include 5 accessible parking bays.
According to the plans, construction on the new extension will commence in the first quarter of 2016 and last for approximately 67 weeks (1 year and 4 months), followed by a 10 week period for the facilities to be tested and staff to be trained in preparation for opening. This would mean a potential opening date of mid-late 2017. The conditions of the planning permission granted stipulates that work on the extension must commence within three years which gives the Resort some flexibility with the current proposed timetable.
Approval of these plans will be a much welcomed positive development for the Resort and represent a further development of the resort’s strategy to encourage more multi-day short breaks. The hotel extension would represent the second major development of the accommodation offering following the addition of the Enchanted Village earlier this year.
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