£10m hotel plan approved

9:50am Friday 17th August 2007

A six-storey £10 million hotel has been approved for a town centre.

The 100-room premises planned for Perrymount Road had divided opinion in Haywards Heath due to a design that was dismissed as "garish"

with inadequate parking provision. But the controversial application was approved by Mid Sussex District Council's planning committee last night.

The application was approved by six votes to five.

Mayor Richard Goddard feared the hotel would set a precedent for further high-rise buildings in the town.

He said: "It's a sad day for Haywards Heath. The hotel will set the pace for Haywards Heath during the next 30 years.

"I don't believe the hotel itself is a viable option. I think it is to get high density flats in there."

Councillors hope the hotel, on the site of the Justin House office block, will help revitalise the town centre and provide a source of local employment.

Yet some have criticised the council for approving a plan that did not meet its usual standards.

Maurice Investments owns the site and the adjacent offices.

Through developer Thornfield it has proposed a three-storey underground car park with just 92 parking spaces for guests, staff and employees.

The building would retain 2,354 square feet of office space.

There will be 25 cycle spaces and district council officers have said the site is suitable for sustainable transport because it is near the train station.

Normally, district council requirements would be 100 parking spaces for the hotel and 78 for the offices.

Richard Goddard, the mayor of Haywards Heath and until the last election a long-standing member of the district planning committee, said they had always wanted a hotel at the train station site and after that was dropped from the Local Plan, a proposal to build a hotel in Perrymount Road was welcome.

He said: "My concern is there is inadequate parking, not just for this application but for a number coming through now.

"We are talking about 95 spaces to serve the hotel and offices adjacent to it.

"At the most conservative estimate, there will be 100 to 150 cars and no other adequate parking unless they go to the car parks in town. They are the thing that keeps the town going."

The Haywards Heath Society told the planning committee it thought the hotel design was "garish".

Chairman David Jarman said last night the plan would ruin any dreams of having a hotel at the station, which was a better location.

Town clerk Carole Preston said: "Most people in the town on the business side would welcome a hotel."

The building will be leased out to a hotel chain when it is completed in 2010.