Property Round-up: Hope Street Hotel angers residents; Police athletic ground for sale and more…
LIVERPOOL’S upmarket Hope Street Hotel has angered nearby residents by seeking to add balconies to rooms on the fifth and sixth floors.
The owners of the 89-room hotel want to convert flat roofed areas outside the rooms, which act as fire escapes.
But people living in the street behind the hotel fear this will be an invasion of privacy with one person suggesting the area will become a “beer garden in the sky”.
The original plans for the hotel’s 2007 extension, which incorporates a conference room on the upper levels, stipulated the roof areas must not be used for any other purpose except as an emergency fire escape.
The council’s head of planning concedes up to 60 people from the conference room could use the balcony. “The camaraderie and ambiance associated with that many people at a social occasion has the potential to generate significant noise”, says a report.
Nonetheless, officers have recommended the application is given temporary approved for one year only and with certain conditions.#
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A seven-acre former police athletic ground in north Liverpool is being put up for sale.
The land – returned to the council after the police moved to a new site at Riversdale, near Garston – could be used for housing or a hotel, according to council documents.
The lease has been returned to the council in exchange for £108,500 which is said to be the value of buildings at the site in Fairview, near Edge Lane.
A report prepared ahead of a city council cabinet meeting next week sates: “The site has already been the subject of a number of enquiries from third parties seeking to develop the site for various uses including residential, hotel and leisure related proposals.
“In view of this interest in the site, and in accordance with contract standing orders, it is recommended that the site is marketed by tender with an agreed development brief, setting out the permissible uses and form of development for the land.”
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CHESTER developer Whinmoor Estates has applied to extend planning permission for a residential block in central Liverpool.
Whinmoor was granted permission to build 116 one and two-bed apartments in an eight to 11-storey block in 2008. It also included ground floor retail and office units.
But work has not started on site, on the corner of Great Crosshall Street and Hatton Garden, and planning consent expires in July.
The head of planning has recommended councillors approve the extension when they meet on January 25.
