New £6m Stourbridge hotel is due for approval
A £6 million new hotel for Stourbridge is due to be approved by the borough's councillors next week.
The Premier Inn, earmarked for land off Birmingham Street, has been recommended for approval by council planners at their meeting on Monday night.
In papers prepared for the council's development control committee, planners have welcomed the proposals as a "regeneration opportunity to help sustain the town centre as a whole and would help to secure economic growth in order to create jobs and prosperity".
They added: "The scheme would result in a significant number of new jobs and economic benefits to Stourbridge, the Black Country and the West Midlands as a whole in a time of high unemployment."
Council planners say the 80-bed hotel will create 43 full-time and 22 part-time jobs as well as increasing tourism in the area. There will also be extra jobs during the hotel's construction.
The hotel, which will have its own access road to be built off Birmingham Street, would also have a Brewers Fayre restaurant and 122 car parking spaces.
The L-shaped four-storey hotel could be open as early as spring next year.
Chairman of Stourbridge Township Council Margaret Scott said: "It will bring business and tourists to the town and it will provide jobs for more people. It will also tidy up that part of the town along Birmingham Street."
Developers Whitbread Property and Barberry Developments said about 73 neighbours were consulted about the plans and only one letter of objection was received, regarding the plans not being suited to the historic townscape of Stourbridge.
The only concerns raised by the Environment Agency were of possible contamination following the former Cox Hire site's use as industrial land and minor flooding possibilities. It was also suggested by the council's engineering consultant that a pedestrian link be created across Birmingham Street.
