A FOUR-star hotel has lodged a planning application to provide additional bedrooms for guests.

The Beech Hill Hotel & Spa plans to refurbish a first-floor extension to allow for 15 extra bedrooms, as well as to improve the aesthetic beauty of the main building to create an improved new first impression, according to plans submitted to the Lake District National Park Authority.

Guests staying at the hotel adjacent to the A592 can expect to benefit from private access to 65 metres of shoreline of Windermere. 

The area being proposed for refurbishment is the historic 1960’s ‘South Wing’ extension of the Main Building which currently houses the Dining Room, a former conference space and general back-of-house storage.

It is considered that this is a minor refurbishment application that re-uses an existing built structure and therefore has no biodiversity value and so would be exempt from providing Biodiversity Net Gains (BNG) under the statutory legislation, said plans.

The building was originally constructed as a 19th century residential property before being converted into hotel accommodation approximately 100 years ago.

Since being converted, over the last 50 years, the hotel has been extended on all available elevations, to the North, South and West, in order to provide additional bedroom accommodation and guest amenities, including a spa, pool and restaurant facilities.

The hotel has recently come under new ownership having been under its previous stewardship for over 30 years.

In August it was revealed it was sold for an undisclosed amount to GGE Limited - one of local businessman Richard Berry’s group of companies.  

Mr Berry said at the time: "I’m pleased that the Beech Hill Hotel will be joining my hospitality business alongside the nearby Lakes Hotel and Spa. Our intentions are to spend around £4,500,000 on refurbishing and repositioning the hotel.

"The Lake District is a world-renowned location welcoming more than 15 million visitors a year and the Beech Hill has one of its greatest assets literally on its doorstep.”

The new owners say with accommodation across multiple levels and at great distances from the primary facilities, that arrangements and the ability for their improvement is compromised without significant intervention.

They claim there is a need for higher quality accommodation within the immediate locality of the primary facilities and that they are committed to carrying out investment works and delivering aesthetic upgrades to vastly improve its appearance. 

They also say that many parts of the hotel in their current state are unable to deliver modern standards of accommodation and therefore are unable to compete with the quality of the commercial offer available at other iconic hotel premises in the Lake District National Park.