A NEW £10.5million hotel in Burnley has been given the go-ahead by the Government.

Crow Wood Leisure’s plans have been approved by the secretary of state for communities and local government Sajid Javid.

The ruling means that Burnley Council can now grant planning permission for the project.

The 80-bed hotel was sent by the council’s planning committee to be reviewed by the government at a meeting last month.

The plan also included a 250-seat function suite, a bar and a restaurant.

Crow Wood has worked on the scheme for two years and has said that it has “incurred considerable expense just to get it to this stage”.

The company has said that work will not start at the site in Royle Lane until 2017.

Managing director Andrew Brown said: “This is a significant milestone and we’re delighted to have got this far.

“But we now have to secure the funding to take the project forward, so there is still a great deal of work to be done.

“Now we have to prepare the final business plan to enable the financial institutions to lend, so even if everything goes according to plan, it’s unlikely that any works will begin on site before May.

“We are all really excited about this project and we’ll work really hard to make the hotel a great success and a wonderful asset to Burnley.”

“It’s going to be a quality development but it will represent an affordable luxury much like The Woodland Spa.

“With the Global Luxury Spa, we’ve demonstrated that we can make Burnley a destination, so this is the logical next step.”

Crow Wood Leisure has said that by its third year of operation the hotel is expected to employ up to 70 ‘full-time equivalent staff’ and it will cost approximately £10.5m to build.

The development will also meet strict environmental criteria, the company confirmed.

Mr Brown said: “We’re proud of the fact Crow Wood has become a haven for wildlife and we’ll be looking to extend this.

“We’ve already planted 25,000 native trees and many kilometres of native hedgerow on the 100-acre site and we’ll be adding to that by installing an ornamental lake and wetlands that will be planted with a wide range of species to encourage and sustain a whole range of wildlife.”