Plans for a new Premier Inn are moving forward.

The 84-room hotel will be built on the site of a former car park in Cornwallis Street, Hastings.

Hastings Borough Council's new cabinet is due to discuss and approve a new agreement with Whitbread PLC, the company which owns Premier Inn, which means the council will not be responsible for building a new hotel.

Whitbread plans to buy the land from the council.

The hotel build process will create around 35 construction jobs and when the hotel is open it will around 30 jobs and bring an estimated visitor spend of £2.1 million a year, according to the economic impact statement put forward in 2021.

Whitbread funded the build of the new Premier Inn hotel themselves and the agreed purchase price will not be less than market value.

The project had been controversial as the hotel had been due to be built by the council and was predicted to cost £13.6 million.

The Argus: The car park where the hotel will be builtThe car park where the hotel will be built (Image: Google Maps)

A legal agreement between Hastings Borough Council and Whitbread will also include a timeframe for the hotel to be built.

Councillor Julia Hilton, leader of the council, said: "All councillors are grateful to officers who have been working hard for several months on this to achieve a much better outcome for the council.

“This project is a legacy project that was agreed before Covid. It will provide much-needed hotel bedspace for our tourism economy while removing any financial risk to the council. We will be ensuring that Whitbread keeps residents in the area fully updated about what is happening and that the hotel is built as quickly as possible."

It is one of two new Premier Inn hotels planned for the county.

Plans for a 116-bedroom hotel on the seafront in Bognor were given the green light in November last year.

The Premier Inn will be built on the esplanade in Bognor on the site of the old fire station and part of the Regis Centre car park.

Whitbread said its Bognor hotel will create 30 jobs on opening.