Hotel planned for green-field site

6:50pm Thursday 21st August 2008

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A businessman has revealed plans to build a £15 million hotel and more than 100 retirement homes on green-field land.

The 65-bedroom hotel in Haworth would include leisure facilities such as a swimming pool and health spa for hotel guests and residents of the retirement village.

Behind the scheme is Pervez Abbas who has applied to Bradford Council for permission to build the hotel, an initial 18 flats and a 99-space car park on land off Weavers Hill. A second planning application will be put forward in the next few weeks to build 160 homes on the remaining land, said Mr Abbas.

Mr Abbas said the hotel would provide some of the best facilities in the area for the three million tourists who visit Bronte Country each year.

He said: “If we are going to put Haworth on the international tourist map, we are going to need something of a better standard than just B&Bs.

“It will provide local jobs and facilities for people who live in Haworth.”

The businessman, the director of Barkers UK, based in Sunbridge Road, Bradford, admitted he expected some objections but said: “We will try to work with the local community to find the best way of overcoming any problems.”

Developers have tried to build on the land in the past but Bradford Council refused permission because it was designated a village green in 2005.

Councillor Glen Miller (Con, Worth Valley), said: “The village is in dire need of hotel accommodation to get people to stay and spend their money, rather than sit on a coach in a car park and leave when they have finished their visit. But this is not the first time plans have been put in for development on that site and they have come up against strong opposition. I am not sure if this area is the place for this hotel.”

The application will be discussed by the Council’s Keighley Area Planning Panel at a meeting next month.