Ryecroft Hotel, Ryecroft Way, Wooler

Vacant former hotel building and associated land, situated within an established residential area of Wooler. Offers opportunity for redevelopment, potentially through a mix of conversion, new-build after clearance, or a combination of the two. The site has an extensive planning history over many years. An application for conversion to a residential care home, was refused in 1996 (N/93/B/0335/P). This was followed by another refusal for conversion to 7 dwellings (N/95/B/0687/P). Permission was then granted in 2001 for alteration and conversion of the hotel to create 7 dwellings, but this lapsed without being delivered (N/01/B/0206). Some time afterwards, an application for demolition of vacant hotel and construction of 12 homes was refused (14/03794/FUL). The subsequent appeal against refusal was dismissed in 2016. A revised scheme for demolition of an existing dwelling and construction of 2 semi-detached bungalows and then part demolition, conversion and extension of the hotel to 8 flats was then permitted in 2017 (17/02068/FUL). Works commenced on this project before a subsequent application to amend the scheme was approved in October 2019 (19/01481/FUL). This alteration added 2 further flats through conversion, increasing overall yield to 11 dwellings. The first 4 flats were completed in 2020/21, with the remaining apartments and 1 of the bungalows now also completed. Work on the final bungalow is yet to be started and it is understood that it is not intended to progress with building of this final unit at present. The delivery of this final dwelling is therefore discounted. Whilst the permission will not lapse, and the theoretical capacity from the extant planning permission remains, the future delivery of all outstanding units is currently discounted. If/when new information becomes available to suggest a change to this position, then deliverability can be appraised.