A derelict hotel overlooking one of Devon’s busiest resort beaches is to be transformed into a modern ‘aparthotel’ with a spa, a coffee house, a café/bar and a roof terrace.
The plan, agreed by Teignbridge Council, will see the old Welcome Inn at Dawlish Warren demolished and rebuilt as a high-quality new addition to the local tourist scene.
The company behind the plan is Freetime Leisure Management, which also runs the Boathouse and other amenities at Dawlish Warren.
An ‘aparthotel’ is a serviced apartment complex that operates with a traditional hotel booking system. It has self-catering facilities alongside the amenities and on-site staff of a standard hotel.
Locally-based architects Kay Elliott, who have also designed buildings in Torbay including the Abbey Sands apartments in Torquay and Paignton’s new seafront hotels, say the tourist accommodation offer at Dawlish Warren is largely static caravans and chalets, with limited hotel bedspaces. There are a number of pubs in the vicinity, a factor which contributed to the demise of the Welcome Inn in October 2020.
The current site is a ‘blight’ on the area, they say, while the new development will ‘stimulate vitality’. It will regenerate the existing site and bring economic benefits to the resort as a whole, they add. Its 29 serviced apartments will meet a high demand.
The Kay Elliott design document goes on: “The site’s prominent location provides a real opportunity to deliver a development that can make a sustained, positive contribution to the surrounding area.
“The proposed design will deliver a development that is distinctive and of high quality in its appearance, which should in turn help to raise standards and drive regeneration and investment in the area.
“At present the building makes no contribution to life in Dawlish Warren.”
Some people living near the site had filed objections, saying the new building would be overpowering and would overlook their homes and gardens. There were also fears of noise nuisance from its rooftop bar and terrace, but that has been removed from the final plans.
But council officers said that the planning balance was in favour of the proposal.
Their report added: “The development will revitalise an otherwise redundant building and provide a different tourism offer to the local area. The removal of the rooftop terrace has addressed amenity concerns.”
The new development has been agreed subject to a number of conditions.
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