Inverness Premier Inn expansion plan sparks objection from Highland Council transport planning team over parking discrepancies
Plans for a major hotel expansion on the outskirts of Inverness could run foul of transport chiefs after they issued a holding objection over discrepancies in the proposals.
Leading UK hotel chain Premier Inn recently applied to build a new 40-bedroom annexe at its Glenurquhart Road site in Inverness.
The hotel, which the company refers to as Inverness West, currently offers almost 130 guest bedrooms but intends to increase this capacity by almost a third if the proposal for a new two-storey annexe building gets the green light from Highland Council.
However the plan, which would see the new annexe built on existing car parking space at the western end of the hotel site, has raised concerns among Highland Council's transport team.
They have issued a holding objection amid concerns over the lack of a site-specific traffic survey that assesses the impact of the additional bedrooms on the site, and also over discrepancies over exactly how many parking spaces will be left once the proposed build is completed.
Premier Inn’s owners Whitbread, in its application, had argued that its controversial decision earlier this summer to close its on-site Beefeater restaurant to non-residents meant that any increase in vehicle movements to the new annexe would be more than offset by the reduction in cars visiting the former eatery.
The popular restaurant closed its doors to the general public in early July, and is now used only for meals associated with guests - in a move that is part of a wider restructuring strategy by Whitbread to shutter UK restaurants it claims were not profitable.
However, Highland Council's transport planning team were not convinced by Whitbread's claims that there will be sufficient parking to accommodate the planned increase in hotel guests, or by the their suggestion that numbers will be offset by the loss of restaurant customers without a dedicated traffic survey of the site to back that assertion up.
One of the chief concerns lies with an obvious discrepancy in supporting material lodged alongside the planning application.
As reported by the Inverness Courier earlier this month, the material submitted contradicts itself, with drawings of the site layout after construction of the annexe showing space for around 147 vehicles, while supporting reports lodged on behalf of Whitbread - state there will be 171 parking bays left at the Premier Inn site.
At the time, the Courier reached out to Whitbread for clarification as to which number was accurate, but received no reply.
And now the transport team have also picked up on that apparent error in the figures and have sought clarification themselves.
In their written submission, the transport team issued a “holding objection” pending further information from Whitbread. As well as concerns over the parking space discrepancies, they also said that traffic survey estimates based on other sites were insufficient and a specific one would need to be carried out at Inverness West.
They said: “The Transport Planning Team require that appropriate traffic surveys and a car parking accumulation assessment for the site subject to this planning application are undertaken.
“To ensure that usage of the car park is appropriately correlated against rooms occupied within the hotel, we also require suitable data on room occupancy be provided throughout the period when the car parking surveys are undertaken.
“Such survey information should cover both typical working weekday and typical weekend periods.”
They added: “There appear to be discrepancies in the number of parking bays that will be available following the implementation of the proposed development.”
The team also warned that the plans did not provide sufficient cycle parking/storage for a site of this size, and added that the submitted material lacked any information about how the site planned to handle the extra refuse the hotel will generate once 40 extra guest bedrooms are added.
“We recommend that revised proposals are sought that adequately cater for secure cycle parking required for both staff and guests,” they said, adding: “Further information is needed on the proposed arrangements for storing and collecting waste from this development.”
