Hotel and office site could see jobs boost

Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council’s Planning Committee is set to give a determination on the project which would be built on lands to the north of Valley Leisure Centre in the Church Road area.

Commenting on the application, which was submitted by Comtec Developments (No. 1) Ltd, a spokesperson for the local authority said: “The applicant has indicated that the proposed scheme will create an estimated 200 construction jobs and an estimated 280 jobs post construction.

“No details have been provided by the applicant as to who the end user for the proposed hotel is likely to be.”

Plans for the development had originally included a cinema, however, these have now been revised by the applicant.

Thousands of people signed petitions and there were also letters of objection to the council when the first proposals were made public.

The council spokesperson added: “A total of 26 individual letters of objection have been received to date.

“In addition, several petitions have been submitted objecting to the development. These petitions contain 4,692 names.”

The amended planning application forms were submitted to the council on November 2, with the cinema removed from the proposal.

The spokesperson continued: “Following the submission of the amended scheme (removing the cinema component from the original proposal) and re-advertisement on November 21, there have been no additional objections received to date.”