THERE will be some who sniff at the proposal for budget hotel Travelodge to move into the Next premises on the High Street.

The chain offers bedrooms from just £29 a night.

It proposes to move into the floors above the shop. Under its plans, just submitted to the city council, the ground floor unit would be converted into three units.

This is good news. Until recently there was a chronic shortage of hotel rooms only slightly alleviated by the opening of Premier Inn in Winnall in 2014.

Travelodge will be the first hotel on the High Street since the 1930s when the Black Swan was demolished for the widening of Southgate Street and the George Hotel was converted into offices before its demolition for the widening of Jewry Street in 1956.

The Travelodge opening will bring diversity to the main thoroughfare plus the chance for smaller independent traders in the three small units.

Some critics will bemoan the arrival of a budget chain and the loss of businesses such as Jones Bootmaker and La Place but they forget that high streets are dynamic, ever-changing places. As businesses come, others go. It would be interesting to see what letters were sent to the Chronicle when those two historic hotels were knocked down. Did people bemoan the destruction and predict the end? The city survived.