PLANS for a new hotel in Basing View have moved a step closer despite a wave of furious objections from other businesses.

At a meeting of the borough council’s cabinet on Tuesday evening, a recommendation was agreed to allow the lease of some of the authority’s land in upper Basing View to Village Hotels, owned by a US company, despite strong protestations from other hotel owners.

The company would build a 153- room hotel, as well as a leisure club, conference facilities and a restaurant, bar and coffee shop, creating 100 jobs. The proposal was debated alongside several other offers from different companies, including a 125-room Travelodge on the same site, and a 90- room Premier Inn at ‘Plot I’, the gateway site to Basing View at the junction of Churchill Way East and Lower Basing View.

Speaking on Tuesday, cabinet member for property and development Cllr John Izett said: “We should be aiming for a business class hotel in Basing View and it should extend the life of the hotel trade.” However, the proposal has been met with some hostility from other businesses in the area.

The cabinet had at least 10 representations from companies in the area registering their concerns about the plans, including Holiday Inn, Basingstoke and District Sports Trust and Hampshire Chamber of Commerce.

Lawrence Huggler, managing director of Apollo Hotel, said: “We are very upset at the result to use Basingstoke rate-payers’ money to subsidise the US private equity firm to build a hotel. “As a long-term investor in Basingstoke of 17 years we are very saddened by this shocking decision. This will cause long term damage not just to the hotel industry in the town, but also other industries who will now question long term investments in Basingstoke.”

The plans also currently include what critics are calling an ‘anti-competition’ clause, so no other hotels could be built in the Basing View area for five years from the date of opening.

Joint managing directors of Fishron Properties Limited, Malcolm McPhail and John Fisher said in an open letter to the cabinet: “We understand that Village would only undertake Basingstoke if they had the anti-competition clause inserted into the lease, which then questions the viability of the whole operation. “If they are that concerned with competition, why are they coming to Basingstoke in the first place?”

Further discussion in relation to the exclusivity deal will commence before completion.