£10.5m. luxury hotel plan for Burnley

Owner Andrew Brown wants the hotel to become a regional venue for business travellers, but also sees it as a complement to the centre’s award-winning Woodland Spa.

It is expected to create up to 70 jobs.

Plans and designs have now been drawn up for the 80-bedroom hotel, conference and banqueting centre, which would be built on spare land next to the spa.

Mr Brown (57) said: “We’ve been looking at this for the last 12 months now.

“We think there’s a demand for it in the area, and the success of the Woodland Spa has reinforced that belief.

“The spa has proven that we can pull in people from 50 miles away, but the problem at the moment is that there is a long waiting list for customers wanting to stay overnight.

“Such has been the success of the spa that every day we have to turn away clients wanting to stay over.”

Glasgow-based architects ICA have been appointed to draw up plans for the hotel which will be built using stone and timber.

A number of planning considerations and finer details need to be completed before a planning application is submitted, although this is expected to be done around March.

Mr Brown added: “I didn’t want a carbuncle. I want this to be the jewel in the crown, not only of Crow Wood, but of Burnley.

“The hotel will be a quality build and will be sympathetic with our East Lancashire location. It will be curved and some rooms will have views overlooking Pendle Hill.

“We’ve changed the design on numerous occasions to make sure it’s the right scheme for the footprint.

“I’ve been working closely with Burnley Borough Council throughout and I’m confident there won’t be any hitches. We’ve created a lot of goodwill with the spa.

“If everything goes according to plan I expect work to start next autumn and for the hotel to open by Christmas 2017.”

The hotel would include a 300 person banqueting suite, to cater for weddings, business functions and conferences.

Mr Brown added: “Bertram’s will continue to be our fine dining restaurant but there will be catering facilities and an extensive lounge at the hotel.”

Meanwhile, work is ongoing to create a £500,000 outdoor extension of the Woodland Spa, which will create two new hot-tubs, a fire pit and an outdoor bar.

The Woodland Spa, which opened in February, 2013, was this May named as a global winner in the World Luxury Spa Awards.

The spa won the World’s Best Emerging Spa category, as well as an overall winner chosen from 22 categories.

It saw off competition from established luxury spa destinations such as Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Australia, with a record number of 4,433 votes.