A BUDGET hotel chain is expected to get the go-ahead for a major new revamp in Bicester that will increase the number of bedrooms to 140.

Premier Inn wants to build a new two and three-storey building on the back of its current hotel in Kelso Road.

The extension would include 56 bedrooms and the new rooms would be built facing onto Pioneer Way.

Cherwell District Council planning officers are in favour of the project and have asked for it to be approved by councillors at a planning committee meeting on Thursday.

In a report, they say the project is ‘responsive to the design of the existing building and would provide a beneficial active frontage at one of the main entrances to this large development site’.

As part of the development, the hotel’s car park, shared with a neighbouring Brewers Fayre restaurant, will be extended. That will increase the number of car parking spaces from 123 to 147.

Premier Inn runs more than 750 hotels across the UK. The firm said its hotels are of a ‘high standard’ and that quality is ‘consistent throughout the group’.

The firm’s hotels are often built in association with restaurants and pubs.

In the case of its Bicester hotel, customers are encouraged to use the Brewers Fayre’s restaurant and bar during most of the day. It opens early in the day to serve the hotel’s customers breakfast, documents state.

Last month, a project for a 344-room hotel and conference centre at tourism hotspot Bicester Heritage was given unanimous approval by Cherwell council’s planning committee.