10:00am Sunday 21st March 2010
PLANS to turn a partially demolished old building into flats and a hotel are being recommended for approval.
If passed, the proposals would see the Esplanade House site, in Eastern Esplanade, Southend, revamped by Langly Developments, owned by the Robert Leonard Group.
It wants to build a mixed use development, with 216 flats, a 64-bedroom hotel, restaurant and shops.
The development would also include semi-underground and surface car parks and cycle parking. It would also build about 50 affordable houses on land behind the hotel, in Burnaby Road.
The hotel would be made up of five blocks, ranging between four and 12 storeys high.
The flats would be a mixture of 60 one-bedroom flats, 129 two-bedroom properties and 27 three-bedroom homes.
Some of the flats would also have balconies and the shops, flats and hotel rooms would be separated into four blocks.
In Southend Council’s planning report, which recommended the proposal for approval, it stated: “Improved accommodation provision assists with the strategic drive to increase the value of tourism to the borough, by enabling and promoting short breaks over day-trips.
“The development of a hotel and restaurant on the site of Esplanade House is therefore supported.”
Esplanade House has been vacant for five years and the council’s report stated the site had been identified as being potentially contaminated, due to its previous use as a gas works.
A previous application for the site, which proposed 220 flats, a 64 bedroom hotel, restaurant and retail space, was rejected by councillors on the grounds of its height, mass, design and bulk, as well as lack of dedicated parking for the hotel.
Nearly 100 letters of objection to the application have been received.
They raise concerns about traffic and parking in the surrounding residential streets, plus the excessive scale of the development, overshadowing of neighbours and the listed fishermen’s cottages.
The application is set to be decided on Wednesday.
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