THE new design of a Travelodge in a “landmark” Oxford location has been welcomed after changes were made by its architects.

The 83-bed hotel currently under construction in Abingdon Road was originally refused permission by Oxford City Council, partly because it was deemed unattractive.

Since that ruling was overturned by a planning inspector last May, the council said it had worked with the architects Hinton Design and Build to improve the appearance.

Council leader Bob Price said: “Council members, myself in particular, were concerned about the design – it was not particularly attractive by any stretch of the imagination.”

After the £5.5m scheme was given permission, he said the council had had “a lot of constructive discussions” with Thame-based Travelodge and its architects and the company had revised its designs to be “much more what we wanted”.

The main improvement, he said, was changing the colour of the cladding – originally bright orange and mint green in artists’ impressions – now red brick and shades of brown.

Mr Price said: “We achieved those changes not through the appeal but by talking with the company.

“It’s all a question of aesthetics – it was not originally designed in a way that made the best of the site, which is a landmark site coming into the city.”

South Oxford Community Centre administrator Debby Forbes said she would be happy with the hotel if it brought new jobs to the area. She said: “There are a lot of buildings that are ugly but they’re still going up.

“You see quite a lot of these Travelodge-like buildings on the outskirts of towns, but you never really know if they’ll look good until they go up. Overall, if it brings jobs to the area, I think it would be a good thing.”

The city council also originally objected that the hotel’s planned 45 parking spaces were not enough, and said guests would inevitably park in the neighbouring Redbridge Park and Ride car park, potentially taking spaces away from people who wanted to catch the bus into town.

Planning inspector Alan Wood said hotel guests would be just as likely to make use of the bus service as not.

Plans for a four-storey Travelodge hotel on the site – which was occupied by UK Bathroom Warehouse until this year – were originally rejected by the council in July 2012 because of fears the building would be an “over-dominant” feature close to the Oxford Green Belt.

New plans were submitted in December that year for a smaller three-storey building but this was also rejected by the council.

Following Travelodge’s appeal, Mr Wood granted permission for the hotel, which is now due to open next year.

Travelodge development director Tony O’Brien said: “We are delighted that work has started on site at Abingdon Road and hope that the new Travelodge will be open for business in early 2016.”