New hotel given approval

Wednesday 13th May 2009, 12:18PM BST.

The eyesore Telephone House before demolition

A multi-million pound five-storey hotel can finally be built in Shrewsbury after plans were approved – despite concerns it could lead to a loss of earnings for town guest houses.

The 127-bedroom hotel, which will be run by Premier Inn, can now be built on the former Telephone House site in Smithfield Road.

The latest plans for the scheme, which also include office space and conference facilities, were approved at a planning meeting of Shropshire Council’s interim regulatory committee yesterday.

Councillors backed the scheme despite hearing objections from Shrewsbury Town Centre Residents’ Association.

At the meeting, Sheila Sager, from the residents’ association, said: “We have concerns about the traffic increase on Smithfield Road which is already a problem and the size of the hotel. We already have many old hotels and inns and we don’t want them to go the way of our greengrocers and butchers and close.”

But Mike Best, speaking on behalf of developers Dunedin Property, said: “This application reflects 18 months of hard work to arrive at a radically different scheme. The architects had gone back to the drawing board to come up with a building which has been considerably reduced.”

The original plans had been for a nine storey building which has since been reduced. Councillor Liz Parsons said: “I welcome this development.”

View more: Shrewsbury news, Smithfield Road news.