Latest Winter Gardens hotel plan in

Plans for a 160-bedroom hotel adjacent to the Blackpool landmark are to be rubberstamped by a council long eager to see progress at the site.

Blackpool Council’s planning committee meets on 8 June to consider the proposals for a five-storey hotel and two-storey 94-space car park on land bounded by Adelaide Street, Leopold Grove and Alfred Street. The developer is Kewdeal, headquartered in Essex, according to Companies House.

The site has long been earmarked for a hotel, with plans of varying sizes and configurations having been approved on three occasions covering parts of the site at various stages going back to 2010.

The most recent consent came in 2018, when the design team for the current project won approval for a block of 203 bedrooms, with facilities including a spa. The plans, which included lower ground floor parking for 63 cars, failed to advance.

Kewdeal will hope that the nearing completion of a new conference centre on the opposite side of Leopold Grove will help the proposals stack up financially where previous attempts have failed.

Around two thirds of the current application site is currently used as a temporary pay & display car park, following the demolition of terraced housing a decade ago.

This outline application involves the hotel taking up around a third of the overall site along the Leopold Grove side, with the Alfred Street side housing a two-storey car park, made up of a lower ground floor and upper ground floor, the exterior of which will be softened by a green wall and planting.

The main hotel entrance will be on Adelaide Street, with a secondary entrance on Leopold Grove.

Although up to 160 bedrooms are indicated, alternative uses such as meeting rooms or a gym could see that reduced. The hotel could be linked to the new conference centre via a bridge, although this is not included in the current application.

Kewdeal’s design team comprises architect Bisset Adams, Tad Planning and transport consultant Mayer Brown.

Approval is recommended next week, with officers stating that the project accords with the Blackpool Town Plan’s aim of backing projects that “maximise growth and opportunity across Blackpool”.

Officers summarised their recommendation as “this proposal is a positive step towards the regeneration of the area – the site is in a key location on the edge of the town centre and adjacent the Winter Gardens, one of Blackpool’s most important heritage assets and leisure and conference facilities.”

Bisset Adams is also the architect of the £25m conference centre, which is being delivered by contractor McLaughlin & Harvey.

The Belfast firm is delivering a 73-week programme covering a new two-storey 66,000 sq ft conference and exhibition space, along with the refurbishment of the existing grade two-listed 42,000 sq ft complex.

Blackpool Conferene Centre

Work is progressing on the neighbouring Winter Gardens conference centre. c.McLaughlin Harvey

Your Comments

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Another hotel!? Wow – so hope apart from conference for the tories it will have an income at a reasonable price. And also not undercut hotels and bnbs here already.
Hope they are providing more bins too for the endless empty Costa/coffee cups!!

By Tony2

Good to see development in Blackpool but that looks like a mock up of a project 60 years ago. Very dated before it is even built.

By Observer

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