A PLANNING application has been submitted to demolish Salisbury’s city centre Tesco store and rebuild it with a hotel above.

Spenhill Developments Ltd, which is owned by Tesco, wants to turn the Tesco Metro and Avon and Riverside Houses in Castle Street into a replacement ground floor shop with a 65-bedroom hotel.

Agent Mango Planning, who submitted the application to Wiltshire Council on behalf of Spenhill, said the proposed development would “enhance both the retail and accommodation offer within Salisbury”.

The application states: “The application proposal seeks to make effective use of a partly vacant site within the urban area of Salisbury to facilitate significant new investment, creating new job opportunities for local people and providing a sustainable development.

“It will maintain and strengthen the functional relationship between the application site and the remainder of the city centre, including the Maltings, and will maintain a strong anchor presence in Castle Street.”

A public exhibition was held in the city in April and many concerns were raised about the impact the hotel would have on existing businesses in and around the city, with bed and breakfast owners saying it could ruin their livelihoods.

While there might be a few weeks in the summer when it’s hard to get a room, for the rest of the year Salisbury has more than enough hotel accommodation and we simply don’t need any more,” said Karen Rogers, who has run Rokeby Guest house in Wain-a-long Road for 12 years.

“These budget hotels offer rooms from about £29 a night – there’s no way we can match that and still cover our costs."

There have been calls for an analysis of hotel accommodation in the city to be undertaken in the light of this plan and a separate proposal for another 65-bedroom hotel and a drive-through restaurant in Southampton Road.

The plans can be viewed at wiltshirecouncil.gov.uk, application number 13/01494/FUL.