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Motel plan is driven through
From the Guardian Series, first published Thursday 9th Jan 2003.
CREWE'S new motel will see the town move one step closer to becoming the nation's leading transport centre, according to Councillor Donald Potter.
Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council passed proposals for a 60-bedroom motel at the rear of the McDonalds drive-thru on Tuesday at a development control meeting, allowing the town to "get back to its roots" as a transport town.
"I have always felt that Crewe has the potential to become a regional centre for travellers because it is equidistant between London and Glasgow and also Manchester and Birmingham - remember that is the reason Crewe was chosen as the railway town," said Cllr Potter.
"It also has the M6 nearby and very good links to Manchester Airport, so to develop a hotel like this will enhance the area and the town, which I think is superb."
Meeting chairman Chris Thorley was also in favour of the hotel proposals being accepted and said: "We have been trying to get a hotel on Crewe Gates Farm for 25 years without any luck, so I am delighted that this has been approved - I think it's in an ideal site."
The development, by Foxwell Holdings Ltd will include 31 parking spaces to the rear with a further 18 under the raised ground floor and include a ground floor restaurant, bar with reception area, and feature 40 bedrooms on the raised first floor and twenty more in the roof area.
However not everyone was as enthusiastic as councillors Potter and Thorley, with Byron Evans questioning why a proposal for an extra twenty bedrooms was added to the original application of 40 which was one of the conditions imposed in accepting the original bid.
"I thought we imposed conditions for a reason, so why are we allowing something which contradicts that to go ahead?" said the Leighton Ward councillor.
"If the application states that they are only expecting 60 per cent of the bedrooms to be occupied anyway, why do they want another 20 bedrooms?" he added.
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