Hotel plans for Drake's Island given the green light

Plans to build a 25-bedroom hotel on Drake's Island in Plymouth Sound have been given the go-ahead by Plymouth City Council.

The £10m development, overseen by architects LHC and owner, industrial machinery company Rotolok, will also include a 120-cover fine dining restaurant, bar, conference facilities, spa, gym and a further 19 suites in the island's Casemates Building.

Plans for the redevelopment have been ongoing, however issues surrounding the nesting of little egrets on the island meant previous plans were rejected on environmental and heritage grounds. It has now been decided that the island will be publicly accessible and the birds will be relocated to Mount Edgcumbe.

The island was named after explorer Sir Francis Drake, who used Plymouth as his home port, before it came under the administration of the war office until 1963. Businessman Dan McCauley, founder of Rotolok, bought the island for £384,000 in 1995.

Construction on the project is expected to begin within three years.

Speaking to the Plymouth Herald outside the planning committee meeting, Rotolok managing director Sean Swales said: "I'm absolutely delighted. It has been a very long time coming. We always kept hope and we did think that we would get there."

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