Preston Park Hotel plan would harm city's assets, charity says

The hotel, which overlooks Miller Park, had a 1960s office block adjoining, but that was demolished in 2020

A heritage charity has said a plan to extend a city hotel would "permanently harm" the site's "relationship with the wider landscape".

Developers The Heaton Group and Paul Butler Associates have applied to change Preston's Park Hotel into an aparthotel.

They said the conversion, which would include adding a gym, cafe and workspace, would be "sensitive".

However, The Victorian Society said it would harm the city's heritage assets.

The red brick, Gothic-style building near Preston's railway station was built in 1883 as a hotel and is Grade II listed.

It closed in the 1950s, and was used for decades by Lancashire County Council as East Cliff County Offices.

An office tower was built on to it in the 1960s, which was later demolished in 2020.

The proposed new complex would be the result of a "sensitive conversion", its developers said

In its application for planning permission, The Heaton Group said the vacant buildings were falling into disrepair.

It said there were "significant benefits associated with the proposed scheme, not least the provision of high quality residential accommodation, for which there is a need".

It added that the development would "have a positive impact on the character and appearance of the Avenham Conservation Area and site surroundings".

Guy Newton, the Victorian Society's conservation adviser, said the proposal "would permanently harm the existing 19th Century relationship with the wider landscape".

He said the building was "integral" to the nearby municipal parks and the council "must refuse this application and work with the developers to come back with a scheme which restores the original building and creates and new more sensitively designed accommodation".

"This is a once in a generation opportunity to get a key site right for Preston," he added.

In its own response to the application, Historic England said it supported the idea of returning the building to its original use, but the current proposal would cause "a considerable level of harm to Miller Park", which is in front of the site, and "a moderate level of harm" to the surrounding Avenham Conservation Area.

The application will go before the city council's planning committee at a later date.