Campaigners plan direct action to save Midland Hotel wall

Campaigners are opposing plans by developer Urban Splash to demolish a Grade II-listed wall outside the recently re-opened Midland Hotel in Morecambe.

Members of the Friends of the Midland Hotel group said they will chain themselves to the wall to prevent it from being removed.

Splash wants to bring the wall down to better link the Midland to its proposed Central Promenade residential-led scheme, designed by FLACQ.

Sue Thompson, chairman of FMH, said the proposals, due to go before planners in September, represented a betrayal by Urban Splash.

Paul Jones, Splash's development manager, said: "We held a series of public meetings about the proposals in December 2006, attended by nearly 3,000 people.

"People wanted the hotel to be integrated into the wider site. This is not a knee-jerk reaction, but the result of a lengthy design process."

Lancaster City Council has received nearly 100 objections to the plans.