Budget hotel chain seeks to double its size in Angmering

Plans for a 20-bedroom annexe to the hotel have been submitted to Arun District Council as part of Premier Inn’s drive to expand by 25 per cent, from 52,000 rooms to 65,000, by next year.

Extra staff would be taken on, although it is not clear how many jobs will be created.

The company says the Roundstone Premier Inn is running at high capacity, with an average occupancy rate of 95.5 per cent, adding: “For much of the weekday use, the hotel is operationally full and business is being turned away or redirected.”

The original hotel accommodation was built in 2007 with 20 bedrooms. To make way for the new annexe and to help provide 19 additional parking spaces, two neighbouring properties, Burberry House, on the A259 Roundstone bypass, and Spinney, in Roundstone Lane, would be demolished. Part of the Burberry House site would be used for the new building and the extra parking would be on Spinney’s land.

In a statement accompanying the plans, Premier Inn’s agent says the additional rooms ‘would have no adverse impact on existing or proposed hotels in nearby centres’ and would help to boost the area’s economy by bringing up to 3,000 more people a year to the area, spending money locally.

Roundstone Premier Inn’s catchment area includes Littlehampton, Worthing, Bognor and Arundel, according to the statement and the hotel caters for the travelling market on main roads and the wider tourist attractions along the coast and around the South Downs.

“As such, this market is not served only by town centre hotels, and the viability of these centres is unaffected by budget hotel developments on ring roads, main out-of-town roads and roads which bypass towns,” the statement adds.

Premier Inn, it claims, is the market leader in the budget hotel sector, which is the main growth area in the tourist accommodation industry.

“Having identified the scope for growth in Sussex, the company has viewed (the Littlehampton area) as a site with the potential to provide that growth. This has been made possible through the availability of the two adjacent plots.”

The new building will have an ‘irregular’ shape to fit in parking and to protect a nearby tree and has been designed to have no effect on neighbouring properties. Rooms facing the Roundstone bypass will have extra sound insulation to benefit guests.