Plans for new Rotherham Premier Inn in the balance

Hotel giant Whitbread this week urged council planners to “look at the bigger picture” after claiming it could be forced to ditch plans for a new £6 million, 120-bedroom hotel development because of a planning “technicality.”

Plans for a Premier Inn hotel and Brewers Fayre pub at Phoenix Riverside in Templeborough - which could bring 60 new jobs - are under threat after council officers decided to recommend the scheme for refusal.

Councillors will vote on the multi-million pound hotel development next week, but officers said that it should be knocked back after concluding that there were more “sequentially preferable” locations for a hotel in the town.

Whitbread, which owns Premier Inn, urged Rotherham Borough Council to have a rethink before next Thursday’s planning board meeting.

It is understood that the council concluded that the Weirside and former Guest and Chrimes factory site were better sites for a hotel, but Whitbread said both were “unviable” for a Premier Inn, leaving them considering ditching the scheme.

The council’s director of planning and regeneration, Paul Woodcock, said that they were supportive of new investment.

But he added: “Officers believe there are at least two preferable locations for this investment to the one requested by Premier Inn.

“One of these options is an exciting opportunity close to the new Rotherham United stadium near to the town centre. Building there would have a much more positive impact on the Rotherham economy as a whole.

“This is the basis of the recommendation to the planning board but the decision will ultimately be one for the board who are meeting next Thursday.”

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