Last updated 11:35, Friday, 09 May 2008

PLANS to transform a Lake District hotel into a five-star luxury getaway have been thrown out for the second time.

At a meeting on Wednesday, planners from the Lake District National Park Authority voted 10-0 against allowing Grasmere’s Waterside Hotel to be partly demolished and then expanded.

The decision went against the recommendation of the authority’s planning officers, who said the amended plans should be passed.

The latest application follows on from plans submitted two years ago, which were declined as they were deemed to “constitute harmful over-development”.

Planning officers said the new set of plans were superior to the first, but the committee disagreed, saying the project was still too big.

Opponents – including TV presenter Rolf Harris – were mainly concerned with the size of the hotel’s proposed extension and the possible negative effect it would have on the surrounding area. An LDNPA spokesman said: “Everyone seemed to agree that something needed to be done on that site, but the members felt that this was just too big.”

He said concerns were also raised over the amount of space available for parking. LDNPA’s head planner said that the project if passed would represent the biggest change to the area since the original hotel was built more than 150 years ago.