Scheme for landmark hotel given green light

CITY development bosses have given the go-ahead for plans to create new “conference and meeting rooms” at a seafront hotel.

- CHRIS BINDING Local Democracy Reporter

The planning department of Sunderland City Council has approved an application for part of the Roker Hotel site to be redeveloped.

Dating back to the 1840s, when it was known as the Roker Baths Hotel, it has become a seafront institution over the years.

Seaton Hospitality Ltd, which recently took over the site, lodged an application earlier this year to redevelop the building’s rear annexe overlooking the hotel’s rear car park.

A design, access and heritage statement from applicants said the conference and meeting rooms would be “ancillary to the existing hotel” and “would not, therefore, constitute ‘development’ for planning purposes”.

The lower ground floor of the annexe building is understood to have been used as an access from the rear car park and as a gin distillery, which the new conference and meeting room facility will “supersede”, planning documents state.