OUTLINE plans for a hotel and spa at Monmouth have been submitted to Monmouthshire County Council.

Over the past nine months, Alchemy Hospitality Management has been running a public consultation on its proposals for a premium hotel and spa on the 11-acre brownfield site on the old Enterprise Park on Hadnock Road which, they say, would transform the disused former manufacturing site.

Jan Kitcher, the managing director of Alchemy, said: “I’d like to thank Monmouth residents, local businesses and stakeholders who have taken the time to get involved in the consultation process, particularly local neighbours of the site who have provided invaluable feedback. 

“We have been very encouraged by the feedback we have received throughout, which suggests there is strong support for the hotel and spa. People have particularly welcomed the significant regeneration and tourism opportunity that the proposal could bring to Monmouth and to Wales.”

Full details of the planning application and the public consultation process are available on Monmouthshire County Council’s website, and the council will now be undertaking its own consultation on the plans.

A direct link to the outline planning application can be found on the project website: www.hotelandspaonthewye.org/public-consultation.

If the ‘outline’ application is approved, a ‘reserved matters’ application, will set out the detailed design for the hotel and spa and the mixed use element, and would be consulted on, prior to being submitted to Monmouthshire County Council.

The site at the Valley Enterprise Park was used for the manufacturing and storage of packaging materials for over 20 years, employing 150 people at its peak in the 1990s.

Manufacturing ceased in 2007 and, since that time, a number of opportunities have been explored for the site, including recycling and waste management facilities.

There are three large redundant industrial buildings with a total footprint of over 200,000 square feet on the site. These have been unoccupied and in decline for seven years and the developers say they have no realistic prospect of attracting tenants.