A ROW is brewing over the future of a listed town centre hotel after it was branded “a grim and ugly eyesore”.
The 193-year-old Royal Hotel in Hexham, a former coaching inn, has had its distinctive decorative frontage boarded up after standing empty for nearly a year.
But for long-standing town councillor Matty Donnelly, the Grade II-listed building is now a right royal eyesore for visitors to the Tyne Valley’s capital. The Royal Hotel, once a prestigious town centre venue with a ballroom and nightclub, fell into neglect last February after a tangled sequence of events.
“I’m absolutely horrified by the boarding-up of the old Royal Hotel,” said Coun Donnelly. “It has stood vacant for almost a year and they’ve now boarded it up to make it secure but I think they could have left the frontage open.
“It looks absolutely appalling and I’ve had many complaints from the public – they are absolutely livid. Folks coming into the town – the main bus station is opposite – are going to ask, ‘What sort of dump is this?’
“It’s also an open invitation to the graffiti artists and something needs to be done about it.”
In January 2012 three Bangladeshi men were arrested at the hotel in a regional investigation into illegal immigration by the UK Border Agency. It left hotel management facing £30,000 in civil penalties and the trio facing deportation.
The hotel, dating back to 1820, was taken over by the new owners in 2008 and the Royal Orchid Thai restaurant opened in a front suite.
But in November 2011 police and fire officers investigated electricity supply irregularities and a prohibition order was then issued because fire alarms and emergency lighting were inoperable.
The hotel, on Priestpopple, is now in receivership and the council cannot issue an amenity notice to the building owners to secure the property.
But it is understood that plans are in hand to paint over the boards to help them match the rest of the building.
A council spokesman said: “No planning applications for the building have been submitted to the council and we don’t know what the receivers are intending to do with it.”
