A plan to extend a hotel by 240 rooms, making it a Scottish city's largest, has been lodged by developers.
The proposals unveiled in a statement by Leach Rhodes Walker and Lichfields on behalf of Ability Hotels would double the size of the Hampton by Hilton at Edinburgh Airport.
Although on the western edge of the city, with 480 rooms it would be described as Edinburgh’s largest hotel by capacity. The new Hyatt in Haymarket was reported as the previous top capacity holder with a planned 365 rooms.
"The 240 bed hotel has been designed as an extension to the south of the existing 240 bed hotel, in principle as a stand-alone building with a link to the existing hotel at ground floor only," the statement revealed. "The provision of an appropriate level and quality of on-airport hotel accommodation is key to the successful operation and growth of the UK’s airports
"Currently, the airport accommodates three on-airport hotels in addition to the existing Hampton, with a total capacity of 477 bedrooms. This is compared to estimated passenger numbers in excess of 13.4 million per annum in 2017 and projected to increase to 19 million by 2030.
"Whilst our previous scheme has added 240 new rooms to the airport area, the Edinburgh Visitor Accommodation Sector Commercial Needs Study (2019), produced by GVA, highlights an ever-increasing demand for hotel room provision, there are three scenarios of growth resulting in an estimated need for an additional 7,890 new hotel rooms in the city.
"Recognising that passenger growth at the airport is expected to experience significant growth in the period to 2030, the need for hotel accommodation at and around the airport is set to increase."
The development team added: "The building will maintain the characteristics and design intent of the original 240-bed scheme, continuing to act as a gateway to main terminal and retaining the original materiality and form.
"The nature of the proposals, a linear addition to the south of the site, retains some of the existing car parking and soft landscaping and only looks to increase the building height to mitigate the flood risk measures.
"Consequently the hotel’s visual and physical connections, by means of public walkway, to the main terminal building are unaffected, whilst the visual links of the control tower and the adjacent spitfire memorial are unchanged."
Scotland's largest offshore wind farm is now fully operational
SSE Renewables and its partner TotalEnergies have announced all 114 turbines at the 1.1GW Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Scotland are now fully operational and are generating clean, renewable energy to Britain’s power grid.
Situated 27km off the Angus coast, Seagreen is also the world’s deepest fixed-bottom offshore wind farm, with its deepest foundation installed at 58.7 metres below sea level. The 1,075MW project has the capacity to generate enough renewable electricity to power almost 1.6 million homes annually - equivalent to two-thirds of all Scottish homes.
Whisky firm workers to be balloted on strike action
Workers at a Scottish whisky distiller will vote on strike action after talks on pay collapsed.
Workers at Chivas Brothers, represented by GMB Scotland, have overwhelmingly backed industrial action in consultative ballots and a formal vote is scheduled to take place. Chivas Brothers is best-known for its Chivas Regal whisky brand, but also produces Glenlivet, Ballantine’s and Royal Salute.
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