Plans which could transform the gateway to Aberdeenshire’s biggest town were given crucial backing from councillors yesterday.
Developer Hermiston Securities has won permission to build a 45-bedroom hotel, as well as a pub and restaurant, on the southern edge of Peterhead.
Yesterday members of Aberdeenshire Council’s Buchan area committee unanimously supported the move, paving the way for about 70 full and part-time jobs.
Hermiston is understood to be in talks with Travelodge about the new development.
The Inverkeithing-based company, which brought B&Q to the same section of town, and has planning consent for a retail park nearby, wants to build the new hotel and restaurant side by side, next to McDonald’s drive-through diner.
The area is known as the Buchan Gateway and is the main access point into Peterhead for people travelling from Aberdeen or Ellon.
The site is being transformed in an effort to try to entice big-name developers to come to Peterhead, as well as making the entrance more attractive to visitors.
There were concerns that the Hermiston development could have been thwarted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
The HSE warned earlier this year that giving consent to a nearby hazardous chemical store for offshore firm Baker Hughes could jeopardise future developments in the area, but the executive had no objections about the hotel or restaurant.
Recently a similarly-sized hotel was launched at nearby Buchan Braes, the former RAF Buchan compound. The air base’s officers’ mess was used for the 47-bedroom hotel, also known as Buchan Braes. It was developed by hotelier Kenneth Watt and was opened this summer by First Minister Alex Salmond.
The council’s head of development management, Raymond Reid, is expected to finally approve the Hermiston hotel plan, subject to a handful of conditions.
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