Plan to turn empty former nursing home in Hoylake into boutique hotel

Feb 10 2010 by Liam Murphy, Heswall News

At the time, property experts blamed the moratorium on new residential developments in West Wirral, which started in 2003 and limits the amount of development in the area.

The application is seeking a “change of use from residential care home to boutique hotel with spa, erection of a rear extension and associated car parking”.

The large Victorian house had once been a single dwelling, according to the application, and had been added to over time “to the detriment of the overall appearance to the building”.

The applicant is Keith Ellis, from Moreton, and in his submission to the planning department, he said the Paddock has suffered vandalism and weathering, leaving it in a “very poor condition”.

The application says “attention is urgently needed to ensure that current surface damage does not become significant structural damage to the building”.

The plan seeks to create eight letting rooms, each with en suite, on the first and second floors of the building, with reception and a lounge on the ground floor.

The spa would also include an 11-metre swimming pool, along with sauna and steam rooms.

The application also highlights the difficulties “to find a use for the building” and said previous residential conversion schemes “have been reviewed and dismissed as both impractical and unviable” and the council had been against residential development of the site on housing policy and conservation grounds.

It added: “It is unlikely it will ever be a single dwelling again.”