A NEW plan to build a desperately-needed hotel in the centre of Petersfield is to go before East Hampshire District Council. Developers have submitted another scheme to build a hotel next to the Red Lion pub, three years after a similar project was dropped. The new application from Hackwood Assets is for a 31-bedroom hotel next to the present public house. It includes the conversion of the nearby masonic hall, outbuildings and part of the Red Lion into eight homes and three shops. Car parking, a controversial issue in the previous planning applications, is addressed in the new proposal by the leasing of 28 car parking spaces from the Festival Hall car park. The plan is bound to receive support from many sections of the Petersfield community who have long felt there was an urgent need to provide a hotel in the town. But the last plan, for a 38 bedroom three- storey hotel at the Red Lion, was thrown out by East Hampshire District Council planners. They made their decision after officers said the proposal was finely balanced between the need for a hotel in the town and the re-use of the Masonic Hall compared to the design of the building and the concerns regarding the trees and parking arrangements. Councillors were told before deciding to reject the 2002 plan for the Red Lion: "It is considered that the overall adverse effects of the proposal on the setting of the Conservation Area and the listed building outweigh the benefits of the proposal." Plans for a £250,000 12 bedroom hotel next to the White Hart were withdrawn in l999 when pub landlord John White claimed planners were making unreasonable demands through conditions set for permission. In June 2001 plans for an 84-bedroom hotel near the McDonalds restaurant were withdrawn by the American chain Days Inn. A scheme for an 85-bedroom luxury hotel at Adhurst St Mary was given permission but has, so far, failed to materialise. Plans for a smaller hotel are due to be considered by East Hampshire District Council shortly.
