Premier Inn gets green light for hotel in Colchester's Dutch Quarter

7:30pm Thursday 27th September 2012 in News By James Cox

A new hotel on its way to Colchester A new hotel on its way to Colchester

PREMIER Inn has been given permission to build an 85-bedroom hotel next to Colchester’s Castle Park.

Colchester Council’s planning committee has tonight approved the application by 12 votes to one.

Councillors said the three-and-a-half storey hotel on the former Royal Mail office site in the Dutch Quarter’s St Peter’s Street would help to boost the town’s economy.

<b>See Friday's Gazette for the full story</b>

 

Comments(9)

Boris says...
12:50am Fri 28 Sep 12

In that case we certainly don't need a hotel in Queen Street. Colchester doesn't need so much extra hotel capacity.

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jammin says...
8:20am Fri 28 Sep 12

Boris wrote:
In that case we certainly don't need a hotel in Queen Street. Colchester doesn't need so much extra hotel capacity.
Why not?

We dont have a 'cheap' hotel in the town, just out on the fringes.

Also having a few more will give the others the kick up the a*** they need to improve the quality.

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mirokou says...
9:51am Fri 28 Sep 12

Provide further accommodation in the form of hotels and more businesses will settle in Colchetser. At the moment its very poor for Businesses their Reps etc. 85 isn't exactly a lot of rooms and not everyone wants to stay at Premier Inn, . Don't forget it's not just for Colchester. We have a very large area popular with tourists as well.

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totallyfootball says...
11:17am Fri 28 Sep 12

Another big brown envelope deal no doubt?

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Checkout says...
12:46pm Fri 28 Sep 12

Colchester needs hotel rooms in the town centre and I welcome this news. Hotels near the A12 have a part to play but they do not necessarily bring visitors to the town.
In addition to the St Peter's Street building, a new Queen Street hotel will further enhance our ability to host tourists and that cannot be a bad thing.
The jobs created too will help offset job losses elsewhere. We must move forward commercially or we will languish as a town whilst others nearby prosper.

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RetiredVal says...
5:54pm Fri 28 Sep 12

So the residents are ignored once again. As a matter of interest WHOSE environment will be 'improved' by a hotel which will undoubtedly cause more traffic congestion in the town? I notice the comment was made by a Great Tey councillor, not one who might actually suffer any inconvenience. I thought the Dutch Quarter was supposed to be one of Colchester's attractions so why kill it !

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rhetoric says...
6:00am Sat 29 Sep 12

Boris, with due respect you're a Colchester resident so how can you know what visitors want?
.
When I visit Colchester now it's a very expensive deal for me. I don't drive, the family driver is deceased, so staying out on the end of the Ipswich Road is a big, expensive and time consuming deal.
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I don't want Colchester to be destroyed for my convenience, but hey, if the old Post Office building is going to be revamped into a decent middle of the road hotel, what is to be lost here?
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Admittedly there will be some cars parked, but that's just the point. Many of them will stay parked on the grounds of the hotel for the best part of the stay, as it will be close to the Town centre. There are a surprising number of people who travel by train etc and will be very glad that the hotel is comparatively near to the Rail Station.
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I can also say from experience that it isn't easy to get reasonable and reliable accommodation especially at fairly short notice. I have never had any problems with accommodation at Premier Inns, which are excellent value for money and have quite high standards.
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RetiredVal, would you rather have a business bringing in money and Council Tax to the Borough, or an empty building inevitably growing more and more dingy? Vitality is something even Britain's oldest Town desperately needs. How on earth is a new building on the site of a not too old but empty one, going to destroy the Dutch Quarter?
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Golly! I bet you nay-sayers would just have loved to live in St Peter's St when it was full of smoke, fog and mists from the river's proximity, etc in t'old days!! Let's bring back bed-bugs and tb and the Workhouse while we're about it.

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HARRY438 says...
8:06am Sat 29 Sep 12

I live slap bang in the middle of the Dutch Q. & St.Peters street is on the furthest perimeter.All the Hotel will do is replace those boring old BT office blocks which replaced the tumbledown cottages where my father was born.Premier Inn is welcome & the traffic will come from Middleboro so no prob for Dutch Q. The Stockwell Arms will be eventually opened as a bistro & will benefit from the hotel guests.The Dutch Q. is stagnating,property prices less than sluggish,the people that are investing millions into the area should be applauded not vilified.
Just a lifelong town centres resident way of looking at it.

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rhetoric says...
10:24am Sat 29 Sep 12

Well said, Harry. If there isn't a house or building of historic value on the site, but rather a "modern" building of no merit, then why kick up about a new one that will bring visitors into the heart of the Dutch Quarter and, as suggested customers to the Stockwell Arms. The one thing I don't particularly go for at Premier Inns is their restaurants, so I would cheerfully spend my meals money on local eating places.
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The Dutch Quarter is also going to get more visitors/attention/r
ecognition as a spin-off. Do the die-hard Townsfolk who oppose Premier Inn want to keep this entirely to themselves, or do they want an attraction of which we can all be proud to become wider known?
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Even the local Hospital is going to get more customers: the older hotel visitors who have breathing and cardiac problems walking up the steep hill to the High St!!!

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