Plans for extra rooms in hotel attic space are refused

Plans to create additional rooms in the attic space of an un-named and apparently empty Blackpool hotel have been refused by planners.

The proposals were lodged with Blackpool Council for alterations to a property at 36 Lonsdale Road in South Shore.

Despite the proposals, the council’s principal planning officer noted that the property appeared to have been empty since 2020 and had seemingly not been used as a hotel since 2007.

The detailed application was seeking consent for the erection of front and rear dormers to create additional hotel rooms in attic space,a single storey rear extension (following demolition of existing rear extension), rear garage and decking, solar panels on ‘A’ frames and cladding of the whole building.

The existing plans submitted with the application show five bedrooms on the first floor and six bedrooms on the second floor, so 11 bedrooms in total.

But the planning officer felt there were a number of issues with the scheme.

In a report, the officer said: “It appears that the building has not been in use as any form of holiday/visitor accommodation for a significant amount of time. From records this may go back as far as 2007.

“It is not clear how the building has been used in the interim period.

“In March 2017 a complaint was received that it was being used as a HMO. However, in 2019 complaints were reported to Environmental Protection that the property was unsecured/open to access and visits confirmed that the property appeared to be vacant.

“The last record was in 2020 when records appear to show the property as still vacant (and therefore enforcement matters were closed), but it was noted it was up for sale.

“It is therefore unclear what the current lawful use of the property is in planning terms. A request for information on how the building has been occupied since it ceased trading as a hotel/guesthouse, explaining the need to establish the current lawful use of the property, was sent to the agent for the current application, but no response has been received.”

Refusing the application,the planning office said it unclear what the current lawful use of the property was or what the proposed use of the property would be, from the information submitted.

Due to insufficient information on the use, layout, operation and management of the proposal it was therefore not possible to come to a full and proper conclusion on the application.

The property was not considered viable as visitor accommodation and the proposal would therefore undermine the council’s approach to managing an excess of holiday bedspaces in Blackpool contrary to planning policies.

Additionally, the proposed dormers, due to their size and prominent location would effectively be viewed as a roof lift and would fail to respect the character and form of the original property.

As a result, they would appear incongruous in the street scene and undermine the unity and roofscape of the street.