A PROJECT for a new hotel, pub and restaurant on the outskirts of Barrowford has been revived.

Proposals for the tourist trap, close to the Riverside Business Park off the bypass, were first suggested in 2010, and outline planning permission was secured.

But progress was not made on the Peel Investments-owned site, situated to the east of Vantage Court, until blueprints for a four-storey hotel were lodged with Pendle Council.

County and borough councillor Christian Wakeford said: “One of the things which Pendle has been screaming out for in recent years has been hotel beds.

“And of course anything which will help to bring jobs and investment to this end of Pendle should be broadly welcomed.

“If it can help to make that junction safer, no matter what happens with Trough Laithe, then that would be useful as well.”

Land behind the proposed hotel site, at Trough Laithe, has been controversially earmarked for around 500 homes.

Work is also continuing on a major overhaul of junction 13 of the M65 nearby, as part of work supported by the Lancashire Economic Partnership.

Parish leaders also believe the application, which could also see a creche or nursery and two office blocks installed nearby, could provide a shot in the arm for Barrowford’s tourist trade.

“We have been banging the drum in the village for some time about bed spaces,” said Iain Lord, parish clerk.

“There used to be three boarding houses but that would only have given us 10 beds or so.

“It might have got to the point with the site that anything is better than it being an eyesore.”

The parish council will meet next Wednesday at Holmefield House to formally agree its response to the bid.

An operator has not yet been officially revealed for the hotel.

But the planning documents submitted to the borough council show it should have at least 60 rooms. spread across the upper three floors of the high quality hotel.

Planning agent Amy Longmore said: “The proposal will deliver a high quality development of a scale, appearance, and landscape design that responds to the character of the local area and the adjacent Riverside Business Park.”

Part of the site has regularly been used as a dumping ground by fly-tippers in recent years, according to the prospective developers.