A planning application submitted in September 2023 to Westmorland and Furness council to allow change of use and refurbishment of existing buildings at Newton Rigg to create a 57 bedroom contemporary hotel, providing a mix of serviced rooms and serviced apartments has been approved by planning officer at the council in the last week.
Newton Rigg College closed in June 2021 and was bought in September 2021 by the current owners who have worked to attract new occupiers and bringing activity back to the former campus.
Some of the buildings and campus now provide facilities for the Viberoptix training academy and high-speed broadband delivery hub for the installation of fibre broadband across the region along with Fibrus.
Other new occupiers of the former campus site include local community radio station Eden FM with its studio and transmission site on the campus site.
The approved plans will see four existing buildings last used for housing the student population at the former Newton Rigg College, named Bessey, Bessy Annex, Herdman, and Capstick used to create the new hotel.
The owners plan to create the 57 bedroom hotel from the original purpose-built student living accommodation dating from the 1970s for three of the buildings and an older 1960s building that contains a mix of former student living accommodation, teaching rooms and administrative spaces. The buildings when used as student accommodation provided 77 bedrooms.
The owners plan to undertake a comprehensive refurbishment, including internal alterations creating better proportioned spaces needed to serve as contemporary hotel accommodation to create 50 modern units of hotel accommodation providing 57 bedrooms, making use of the existing building structures on the Newton Rigg estate.
Kieran Martin, Operations Director at Viberoptix said “Since the commencement of work in Cumbria, Viberoptix have located their main UK base at Newton Rigg, Penrith. One of our main objectives as a Company is to grow a business that not only builds a fibre broadband network to support connectivity in Cumbria, but which also focuses on building futures for people. Our aim is to employ, train, upskill and support both our employees, but also people in the local area, whether that be through direct employment, as a supplier, school, college or any other stakeholder.”
“Evidence of this can be found in our purpose-built Training Academy, which has supported the employment of 170 people, including telecoms apprentices.”
“One major obstacle that we have encountered frequently, and which is becoming more and more prevalent as the business grows, is the lack of available accommodation in the local area. Further accommodation availability will allow Viberoptix to continue to grow and bring more people to Penrith, in turn aiding the local economy.”
The council has however placed a number of restrictions as part of the planning approval including that the building shall not be occupied other than as holiday accommodation.
It shall not be used at any time as a sole and principal residence by any occupants or be occupied independently by any family, group or individual for more than three months (cumulative) in any one calendar year. The reason given by the council for this is that in the council view “The site is an inappropriate location for a permanent separate dwelling”
The council has also put a restriction preventing overnight parking of any vehicle with a gross combination mass over 3500kg. The council said this is “to ensure that the development does not operate as a HGV rest facility.”
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