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Westmorland and Furness Council has approved the planning application to allow change of use and refurbishment of existing buildings at Newton Rigg to create a 57 bedroom contemporary hotel, providing a mix of serviced rooms and serviced apartments.
Newton Rigg College closed in June 2021 and was bought in September 2021 by the current owners who have worked to attract new occupiers and bring activity back to the former campus.
Some of the buildings and campus are now occupied by telecommunications contractor Viberoptix. Other new occupiers of the former campus site include local community radio station Eden FM with its studio and transmission site on the campus site.
The design and access statement which was submitted by Yam Architects, will see four existing buildings last used for housing the student population at the former Newton Rigg College, named Bessey, Bessy Annex, Herdman, and Capstick used to create the new hotel.
The plans also include a comprehensive refurbishment, including internal alterations creating better proportioned spaces needed to serve as contemporary hotel accommodation to create 50 modern units of hotel accommodation providing 57 bedrooms, making use of the existing building structures on the Newton Rigg estate.
The council has however placed a number of restrictions as part of the planning approval including that the building shall not be occupied other than as holiday accommodation.
The council said: “It shall not be used at any time as a sole and principal residence by any occupants or be occupied independently by any family, group or individual for more than three months (cumulative) in any one calendar year as the site is an inappropriate location for a permanent separate dwelling.”
The council has also put a restriction preventing overnight parking of any vehicle with a gross combination mass over 3500kg. The council said this is “to ensure that the development does not operate as a HGV rest facility.”
