Sally Allen: Community has power to ensure promises are met

Well, it shows what a sad life I live that I decided to spend last Thursday morning in the Town Hall’s freezing Banking Hall.

However, it was a very important meeting and one not to be missed. It was the Licensing Sub Committee meeting to decide on the licensable activities to take place, such as the serving of alcohol and live music, for the eyesore on the seafront, now known as the Hotel Indigo.

Not surprisingly, the incoming hotel group asked for the hours to serve alcohol and have live music should be from 1100 hours to 0200 hours 7 days a week! Even the thickest plank in the woodshed would have realised when planning was passed for this monstrosity, that whoever was going to run it, would need to push the envelope to the limit to enable them to run a profitable business.

It was a cynical but predictable ploy by the Fragrance Group to agree to all the planning caveats to enable the building to be completed on the basis that no non-residents would ever be admitted to the building. I believe the whole exercise has been so badly handled from the outset, and many rules have either been stretched to capacity or completely ignored. For example, the nationally accepted distance between developments like this is 30 metres for two floors and a further 7 metres for each additional floor. So, in this case, a minimum of 44 metres from any other building. Very sadly for the residents of Cromartie Point the distance from Hotel Indigo is a mere 29.5 metres! 

It appears that the Council were seduced by the Fragrance Group waving their cheque book and, so it is said, threatening to pull out of their other proposed projects if they didn’t get their way building a 153-bedroom hotel on a site of only 0.8 acre. Bonkers by any standards as that is a very tiny site to squeeze on a building of those proportions! 

The Hotel Indigo also only has 102 underground parking spaces and the British Standard quoted by the government is one parking space for each bedroom. So, I am not sure how that got through the planning process either!

The passionate residents who turned up to this Licensing Sub-Committee meeting gave chapter and verse of their list of grievances which included: dangerous unrestricted parking around the whole area of Livermead, light pollution, loss of privacy (some hotel windows  see right into the residents’ homes) and of course, noise, which would clearly exacerbate to very high levels once alcohol is consumed. This is a very short, amended list as I don’t have room to go through them all. But, all in all, a very unhappy situation.

So, in fairness to the councillors Hazel Foster, Margaret Douglas-Dunbar and Mark Spacagna who sat in judgement, they were clearly going to have a hard call.

The barrister acting for IHG Hotels & Resorts, who have taken on a 25-year lease of the building, said that they were mindful of all the problems facing the residents, but no one has reached out to anyone as yet.

All things considered, I think that the Licensing Sub-Committee made a Solomonic decision for licensing alcohol and music from 1100 hrs to 2300 hrs, as it would be impossible for the hotel to operate without a license. But, sadly the local residents who said goodbye to peace and quiet back in 2022 when the building started, have now lost it for good. 

Having got what can only be considered a win by IHG, I suggest that they sit on their laurels and don’t try to come back with an appeal to move the goal posts further in their favour anytime in the future, as I think quite rightly, we would see a full scale-war erupt in Livermead.

We have to be ever vigilant and mindful not to be seduced by predatory developers and their empty promises and CAD designs. The artists’ impressions of new builds very rarely turn out as you expect them to!

It is proven to be more successful to always link and reflect the past in the future, rather than expunging any link with past generations. Importantly, tourists visit beautiful historic buildings not concrete tower blocks.

Now another valuable site is also under development, and whilst progress is vital and needs to be encouraged, it should be done with care and in keeping with its surroundings and not at the expense of the community and environment. I speak of course, of the Debenhams site.

It is important to point out again, that Hotel Indigo has 153 bedrooms, and the proposed new hotel on the Strand is to be a 154-bedroom hotel. I should also mention that any hotel with more than 100 rooms cannot be referred to as a ‘boutique’ hotel as the developers in both cases would like you to believe. This is classic wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is also another case of no adequate parking. The Terrace carpark will be stretched beyond capacity to accommodate three hotels, namely Premier Inn, Hampton Hilton and the new one; so clearly there will be zero room for locals and holiday makers alike to park their cars.

We have been promised a 4-star facility at Hotel Indigo and 4-star-plus on the Debenhams site. If it all works out, all well and good, but I do have serious doubts on a number of levels. Most importantly, the architecture being sympathetic to its surroundings. I would like nothing better than for everything to look beautiful around the harbour. Afterall, once-upon-a-time it used to ouse charm and style and I sincerely hope it will once again, but just remember all the carbuncles we have, or still live with, Fleet Walk, Ena Sharples’ hairnet formerly the dreadful Coral Island to name just two. Once planning permission is given and the diggers go in, we have to be sure that the building is going to be an asset and not a disaster.

The public needs to pay attention to what is going on and play their part. Just remember what was achieved by three local residents: Jontie Williams, Cordelia Law and Paul Foster. They saved the beautiful Pavilion from at one point being completely demolished and on another, as being used as the foyer to a tower block. It shows what can be achieved if you care enough.