Landmark hotel closed since Covid set to become flats

Built in the 1980s, Elme Hall has been closed for more than four years

A landmark hotel which has been closed for several years is set to be turned into flats.

Elme Hall, on the outskirts of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, shut at the beginning of the Covid pandemic and never reopened.

Part of the site was turned into a house of multiple occupation and now its owners want to redevelop the main hotel and ballroom into 19 flats.

Both Wisbech Town Council and Emneth Parish Council said they supported the plan. A report for King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council’s planning committee recommended the proposal was approved.

A well-known landmark for drivers on the A47, the 42-bed Elme Hall Hotel was built in the 1980s.

But it has struggled in more recent times.

The hotel closed in March 2020 and was bought by developers last year.

They said that records showed that prior to the pandemic, its profits had fallen steadily over the previous three years.

In 2022, the government looked at using the site to house migrants in the hotel, until Fenland District Council objected to the idea.

Under the owners new plan, the hotel will be converted into 12 one-bedroom flats and seven with two bedrooms.

West Norfolk Councillors are due to consider the proposal next Monday.