Plan to demolish "eyesore" riverside hotel near Evesham and build eight homes and a boat house
A plan to demolish an "eyesore" hotel and build eight homes and a boat house on countryside near Evesham has been submitted to the council.
The plan by Enzo’s Homes would see the Riverside Hotel in Aldington near Evesham demolished and replaced with a mix of five and four-bedroom homes.
The three-floor building, which overlooks the River Avon, has been out of use since the hotel and restaurant closed in November 2013. Despite being advertised for sale since June 2012, the hotel could neither continue trading nor be sold as a hotel. Offers received for the site were for redevelopment rather than continuing as a hotel.
The hotel is not a listed building and has not been designated as being of architectural merit.
Permission to build four homes on the site was granted by council planners in November 2017. The Vale of Evesham Civic Society has raised an objection to the plan based on what it sees as an inadequate planning application.
The site is not allocated for housing in the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP) nor does it fall within any development boundary.
A pre-application submitted in February raised a number of concerns from Wychavon District Council including the number of homes – double the amount approved in 2017 – in a countryside location, visual amenity and the unsuitability of the proposed new road to the homes.
In a statement provided with the application, the developer said the approval of the four-home plan meant the council had set a precedent for development. The developer also said doubling the number of homes on the site would be acceptable as it fit in with the scale of the “eyesore” hotel and would break up the prominence of the hotel on the riverside and soften the impact it had on views from the River Avon.
NB – This application to Wychavon was later withdrawn.