Town's only hotel to face demolition? (From Salisbury Journal)

Town's only hotel to face demolition?

11:32am Thursday 6th September 2007 in

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THE only hotel in Fordingbridge, at the centre of a high-profile court case last year, looks set to be demolished to make way for a nursing home.

If planning permission is granted, the Ashburn Hotel, in Station Road, will be sold to Sentinel Health Care, which already owns the Forest Nursing Home in Fritham, and the current building will be knocked down and replaced with a 50-bed home for the elderly.

The news comes just over a year after hotel owner Terri Robson was cleared of trying to poison the then head chef, David Belfield, her daughter's former boyfriend.

After a four-day trial at Southampton Crown Court in April 2006, the mother-of-two was discharged and awarded costs after a unanimous not guilty verdict.

Speaking exclusively to the Forest Journal last year she said she feared the case might have a negative impact on the hotel's business, despite the not guilty verdict.

She and her husband, Garry, have run the award-winning 20-bedroom hotel since 1987.

And this week Mr Robson said: "Over the last few years there has been a decline in the demand for the use of the facilities at the hotel.

"This, together with significant increases in operating costs, business rates etc has resulted in considerable reduction in profitability."

Mrs Robson said she was happy about the decision to sell and they would continue to run the Little Mere Restaurant and Gorley Tea Rooms, which they also own.

She did not wish to comment on the decline in demand for the hotel.

The news of the plan, which will leave Fordingbridge without a hotel, has been greeted with dismay by the area's tourism chiefs.

A spokesman for Tourism South East said that although there are other types of accommodation in Fordingbridge such as bed and breakfast and pubs, it would be disappointing to lose the town's only hotel.

"Fordingbridge and the New Forest is a very important tourist destination for the region and it is important that we retain good quality accommodation of all types such as the hotel," he said.

"There is a definite market for the hotel and redevelopment of the facilities could be considered to upgrade and add value to the hotel rather than losing what is valuable accommodation stock."

The new nursing home would have 29 bedrooms and communal areas on the upper ground floor, with car parking, stores, kitchens and staff accommodation on the lower ground floor.

On the first floor there would be a further 21 bedrooms, two lounges, a hairdressing salon and a dining room with a terrace, with the second floor to house eight apartments - three with two bedrooms and the remainder with one.

Al Donnelly, managing director of Sentinel Health Care, said: "We used to own the Fordingbridge nursing home - the Old Cottage Hospital - many years ago, but due to the requirements and regulations it wasn't viable so we had to close.

"It is attractive for us to build in Fordingbridge as there is a lot of demand for beds in the New Forest area.

"Initially we looked to refurbish the hotel and turn it into a nursing home, but it is not viable as it needs so much money spent on it."