Plans to certify the Hampton Inn restaurant failed. Council doubts continuous use of the space as a full restaurant pre June 2024.
The restaurant closed quickly just after a month after they submitted the application. We don’t know what will happen to the site. Now, the space is only for Premier Inn hotel guests.
The application stated the restaurant offered a large menu. It contained many starters, mains, and desserts. They also had a menu just for kids. This menu had been in place for over ten years.
Whitbread wanted to confirm its restaurant use. This fell under class E (b). They wished to continue operating as a restaurant.
Parvis Khansari said plans were rejected. He wrote, “The evidence wasn’t conclusive enough. It didn’t prove the building was entirely a restaurant. The period needed to be prior to June 14, 2024.”
Available evidence casts doubt on the restaurant’s use. The council cannot positively confirm this claim. They could not verify its continuous restaurant use. This needed to be under Class E (b) for ten years.
We contacted Whitbread PLC for more details. We asked about the closure and also asked about their plans for the empty site.