Cambridge hotel scheme rejected by councillors

  Plans for a major hotel development in the Cambridge station regeneration area have been rejected.   Irish hotel operator O’Callaghan Hotels submitted a revised planning application last year to redevelop the former Red House building into a 196-bed hotel.   The island site on station road sits within developer Brookgate’s 1.7m sq ft CB1 scheme.   O’Callaghan Hotels was originally granted planning permission to build a 149-bed hotel and car park on the site in 2006, but later deemed the plans unviable due to the subsequent downturn in the leisure market.   A revised application, with 47 extra bedrooms and minus the car park, was resubmitted last year.   However, planners at Cambridge city council refused to grant permission on the grounds of height, bulk and scale and a lack of off-street parking provisions in the proposals.   The refusal will come as a fresh blow to the regeneration of the area, which has been planned since 2004, previous site owner, the failed developer Ashwell first submitted plans for the £800m CB1 development.   Ashwell was bought out of administration in December by Brookgate, a new body set up by the developer’s management with backing from lender Lloyds Banking Group.   Microsoft is now linked with CB1 and could take an 85,000 sq ft prelet at the scheme, as revealed by Estates Gazette (News, 30 January, p37).   melanie.smith@estatesgazette.com