Q Hotels seeks extension at Crewe Hall
Q HOTELS, the hotel business which owns the Midland in central Manchester, is seeking to extend its historic Crewe Hall site.
The plan to extend the 117-bedroom hotel by 46 rooms has attracted the ire of the Victorian Society and the Cheshire Gardens Trust who say the development will degrade the Jacobean listed building.
But Cheshire East Council has marked the proposal for approval when it meets next week after receiving no objections from local parish councils or English Heritage.
The new rooms will be added to a modern block, rather than the old building, prompting the council to conclude that the extension will not impose on the old hall or its historic gardens.
Referring to previous developments at the hall the Victorian Society said: “The cumulative result of these piecemeal developments is a landscape and setting that has been degraded, and the historic character of which has been eroded.
“Above all, the proposed development would impinge further on views from the Nesfield Garden, and would further degrade the historic character of the grounds. Planting screens of trees is not effective mitigation for this.”
Cheshire Gardens Trust said: “Unfortunate past permissions should not be a justification for future accretions and the further degradation of the historic landscape.”
* Splendid Hotels which operates the Manchester West Holiday Inn on Liverpool Street in Salford has applied for an extension on its permission to build a 68-room extension with a four-storey car park. A previous application was granted in February 2008.
