A LARGE hotel sign which was erected without permission will have to be taken down after planners deemed it to be out of keeping with the local area.

The advert for the Issa brothers-owned Stanley House Hotel has been in place along the side of Preston New Road, Mellor, for several weeks – but now it has emerged that it was put there without planning permission.

Ribble Valley planning officers inspected the large grey sign at the end of April after a retrospective planning application was submitted to the council by Nathan Tonge of Monte Hospitality Ltd – the property arm of the billionaire brothers’ business empire.

The council has now refused permission for the sign to be located there – saying it is out of keeping with the immediate rural area - meaning it must be taken down.

In a report John Macholc, economic director of development and planning, said: “The proposed sign due to its size, siting and design is considered to be highly visible and an incongruous feature which would detract from the character of the area and result in a harmful impact on the visual amenities of the surrounding area.”

The four-star Stanley House is situated within open countryside on green belt land.

In January a separate retrospective temporary planning application was submitted for a large marquee which had been erected at the Mellor hotel.

At the time, bosses at the hotel said the marquee would "help service the demand for weddings" at the site, until more permanent work could be completed.

A year ago, Monte Leisure announced multi-million investment in the buildings and wanted to create 70 more bedrooms at Stanley House, expand its spa and leisure facilities and build a banqueting hall for weddings and other events with outdoor gardens.

There were also plans for an extension to the hotel entrance and restaurant and an expansion the car park to 400 spaces. These plans have been approved by Ribble Valley Council.

Ahead of this major building works, a marquee was put up "to serve pent up demand" for larger weddings. It now transpires this did not have the correct planning approval.

The planning documents say: "The marquee in question has been erected on site to allow the business to remain operational during the construction of the approved development.

"There has been a significant backlog of weddings at the hotel due to Covid-19. In order to deliver these weddings and to protect employees at the site, Monte has erected the aforementioned marquee.

"The applicant has determined it would not be feasible to deliver all of the different approved developments (spa, bedroom block, banqueting) at the same time as this would turn the hotel site into a building site to the extent that could not remain open resulting in many weddings being cancelled."

Monte Hospitality Ltd were contacted for comment.