Plans to house recovering addicts at established hotel

Plans have been submitted to convert a long established hotel into a residential centre for recovering drug and alcohol addicts.
Six Hills Hotel, which could be converted into a residential centre for recovering drug and alcohol addicts EMN-170901-165355001Six Hills Hotel, which could be converted into a residential centre for recovering drug and alcohol addicts EMN-170901-165355001
Six Hills Hotel, which could be converted into a residential centre for recovering drug and alcohol addicts EMN-170901-165355001

Charity, The Carpenters Arms, is in negotiations to buy the Six Hills Hotel, which is just off the A46 and around 10 miles from Melton.

And representatives have submitted proposals to Charnwood Council for a change of use for the building.

The charity would like to provide 29 en suite bedrooms for residents, together with a further 14 bedrooms with shared bathrooms.

The existing restaurant and coffee shop would be maintained and social areas converted into retail space, to raise money for the organisation and provide work experience and social interaction for residents under their care.

A report to go before Charnwood planners states: “The applicant is a registered charity that runs a small

residential rehabilitation facility in the centre of Loughborough for men, who are challenged by drug and alcohol addiction and, as such, is now seeking to expand this programme to larger premises in the locality.

“Six Hills Hotel therefore represents an ideal opportunity to do so, in that, subject to minor modification, its current bedroom accommodation and existing facilities can be utilised straight away to meet the charity’s immediate requirements with the added benefit of providing surplus space and scope for future expansion.”

The plans also provide for using 10 first floor en suite bedrooms as medical and counselling areas for people living there.

Two apartments on the second floor would be converted into individual rooms for staff welfare, secure storage and archive records.

Major advantages of the site, according to the applicants, are that it is easily accessible by road, it has parking space for 200 cars and it has first floor access, bedrooms and toilets which can be used by disabled residents and visitors.

The planning application says the hotel is still trading despite ‘challenging times in the current financial market’ and is up for sale.

The hotel site has housed hostelries and inns for centuries because it was a strategic crossing point for Roman roads.

It was formerly known as the Durham Ox, a name derived from the cattle drovers who used local routes, and was renamed the Six Hill Hotel in 1950, experiencing a number of extensions in the years since then.

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