Alterations sought at top hotel owned by Issa Brothers - as massive makeover work set to start
Bosses at one of Lancashire’s top hotels and wedding venues are looking to make a host of alterations to approved passed for a huge overhaul of the site.
In 2021, Monte Blackburn, which is part of the Issa Brother’s empire, was given permission for a range of changes at Stanley House in Mellor. These included a new spa and leisure complex, banquet hall, extensions to the existing hotel entrance and restaurant, a new bedroom block, extended car park, changes to an internal access road and rerouting of a park Public Right of Way.
“Imminent” start
Work commenced in December 2023 and a A Lawful Development Certificate was issued on in July 2024. But with full construction works set to start “imminently”, now bosses want to make changes to the plans.
In total, there are 19 changes proposed in a letter submitted to planning bosses at Ribble Valley Council. Key changes include:
- Increasing the size of bedroom block from 2,949sqm to 3,029.9sqm. An overall increase of 80.9sqm.
- Increase in height of the overall building by 0.6m to accommodate increased footprint of the building.
- Replacing areas of approved bronze / copper cladding with timber cladding.
There are also several changes hotel bosses want to make that relate to increasing the number of windows on elevations across the bedroom block, as well as repositioning of doors.
Rachel Leather of Atticus Planning stated: “No changes are proposed to the building’s materials, which maintains random stone work, rustic facing bricks and composite oak timber cladding stone to the ground floor. Its position within the plot also remain unchanged; the alterations are limited to the placement and design of window and door openings and the removal of some features such as copper cladding and sedum roofs.
“As a result of the alterations, all habitable rooms maintain good levels of natural daylight. Moreover, the proposed changes would not undermine the acceptability of the consented development, which remains fundamentally the same as originally approved and continues to comply with relevant planning policies and material considerations. The design alterations are minor in scale, will result in improvements to the provisions of the and accord with the scheme’s consented character and scale.”
A decision will be made in coming weeks by Ribble Valley planning bosses.