UK Edition
Millionaire's Row residents in Dorset angered over plans for 'hideous' block of flats
The affluent residents of Sandbanks in Poole, Dorset, have been angered over plans to demolish an Art Deco hotel and replace it with a 10 storey block of flats.
Sandbanks, a small peninsula which crosses the mouth of Poole Harbour, is the fourth most expensive plot of land in the world, and is crowded with luxurious sea-view properties worth in excess of a million pounds.
Locals are up in arms of plans to demolish the 130-year-old Haven Hotel to make way for close to 196 "more affordable" flats.
Developers also aim to demolish Sandbanks Hotel at the other end of the peninsula, and Harbour Heights Hotel in Haven Road, making room for new hotel space.
Local residents have been expressing their anger over the plans on social. Andy Sheppard said on Facebook: "I think it's an absolute disgrace. Especially demolishing the Haven for flats! Terrible idea. That is a historic building, prime location, great rooms, restaurant and bars for locals and visitors. And they want to build more flats instead."
Dave Hatchard added: "Poole and Bournemouth have already been ruined over the years, Is there nothing left sacred? I am all for something new but please leave our grandkids some kind of heritage to be proud of."
John Butterworth, MD of FJB Hotels told the Daily Mail: "The FJB Group has been in business since the 1930's and on the Sandbanks peninsula since the 1960's proudly owning and operating, through our family business, the Haven Hotel and the Sandbanks Hotel. As time passes expectations in hospitality change - when we bought the Sandbanks Hotel in 1966 it didn't even have en-suite bathrooms!
"Today, the Haven Hotel is very popular but as it was re-built in 1927 with a steel frame sadly it is coming to the end of its life structurally - the building just can't go on forever, as is evident from the engineers' reports.
"Our vision is to provide a hotel on the current site of the Sandbanks Hotel that delivers more than the sum of the parts of the two hotels today.
"It will have over 170 bedrooms and internationally attractive facilities so it wouldn't make any sense at all to have a second hotel on the peninsula, so we propose to build a residential development where the Haven Hotel is now that will make owning a property on Sandbanks accessible to many and we intend to incorporate restaurants and bars in that Haven development for locals and visitors to enjoy that will be of a far higher standard than currently available, so no one will be losing out at all.
"And, when developed, the Sandbanks Hotel of course will be something for Poole and indeed the whole South of England to be really proud of long into the future."