Butlins gets go-ahead for £16m hotel in Bognor Regis

Councillors were recommended to approve the plans for the 200-bedroom spa hotel in Butlins.

Work should soon start on the latest tourist attraction on the site of the holiday resort's former boating lake and call centre. The hotel's first guests are due to move in during the summer of 2009.

It will accommodate 720 people and will complement the booming 160-room Shoreline Hotel which opened in August 2005.

The spa hotel will contain 30 double suites and 170 family rooms on the five floors above the upper and lower ground floor.

Council planning officer Keith Wheway told yesterday's meeting of Arun District Council's development control committee in a report: "This building will be prominent in the street scene.

"But it is not considered that it will have a significant adverse effect on the character of the area.

"There are other tall buildings within the Butlins complex, including the Skyline Pavilion and the five storey hotel on the seafront.

"However, this will be a landmark building and it is designed to have a nautical appearance through the use of balconies, curves and external materials and are not dissimilar to the Shoreline Hotel."

The latest hotel is not considered to adversely affect the view of the nearest properties, Mr Wheway states.

The closest home is a chalet bungalow 45m to the east. Two storey houses are 58m to the north.

These are far enough away to prevent significant overshadowing by the hotel, he comments.

Linked to the hotel's development will be the demolition of 256 chalets built in 1960 when Butlins opened off Upper Bognor Road.

The latest hotel reflects the move by Butlins' owner, Bourne Leisure, to take the holiday company upmarket and away from its ageing chalets. Bourne Leisure intends to remove all the current 1,272 chalets on the site within five years.