Once 'glorious' Hartlepool hotel to be bulldozed and replaced by houses

Proposals, which were unanimously backed and praised by Hartlepool Borough Council’s planning committee on Wednesday, state all of the homes will be affordable rent housing units, owned and managed by the local authority.

They will be located across three sites, a council depot in Lynn Street, a former Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centre in Whitby Street, and the derelict Market Hotel.

Submitted by council officers, plans state the development involves demolishing the existing buildings at the sites, including the Grade II listed hotel.

Tim Wynn, council strategic asset manager, told councillors on the committee the project will benefit from £3.68million of external funding and is “realistically the only way to regenerate the area”.

He said: “Based entirely on council owned land, this scheme removes presently incompatible uses such as the substance misuse centre, the council depot, as well as the utterly derelict Market hotel.

“It replaces those uses with 48 of the council’s own new two, three and four bedroom houses, including seven bungalows, to be held by the council in perpetuity as affordable rented units, not for resale.

“It’s 48 new affordable rented houses and bungalows supported by nearly £3.7million of Government grant, versus dereliction and incompatible uses. I believe this is a major improvement to the area.”

He added they have the support of Historic England for the Market Hotel demolition, who said the building had “major structural problems”.

Cllr Moss Boddy said: “Once upon a time the Market Hotel was a glorious building and very well used when it was a public house.

“It is no longer a glorious building, and I cannot ever see it becoming a glorious building again.

“Hopefully we can redevelop a very important part of central Hartlepool.”

The development will include 34 detached, semi-detached and terraced two-storey dwellings and bungalows on the site of the Lynn Street council depot.

It will also feature five terraced three-storey townhouses at the Market Hotel site and nine detached, semi-detached and terraced two-storey homes at the former Drug Rehabilitation Centre.

Ahead of the meeting, council planning officers had considered three objections submitted by residents to the proposals, and ruled the development was in line with planning policies, recommending its approval.