AN urgent works notice could be served on the owner of a dilapidated Clevedon hotel in a bid to make the crumbling building safe. North Somerset

AN urgent works notice could be served on the owner of a dilapidated Clevedon hotel in a bid to make the crumbling building safe.North Somerset Council is preparing the paperwork for an urgent works notice to serve on owner of the Royal Pier Hotel Harvey Hill if work on developing the building into luxury flats fails to get underway.The move follows mounting concern about the poor state of the hotel which has laid vacant since 2003 and has become a target for vandals.Mr Hill currently has permission to convert the Grade II listed building and develop it into 27 luxury flats. He says work will start on site this summer and for sale boards have recently gone up outside the property.But councillors concerned at the lack of activity at the landmark seafront site say they want to take no chances with the building and want to see it made safe.Clevedon councillor Carl Francis-Pester said: "I am very keen to see work start on site as soon as possible."What we don't want is any further dilapidation of the building or risk of collapse."If a notice is served and the work carried out, the authority will be able to reclaim the costs from the hotel.The notice would allow the authority to carry out any works necessary to preserve the building and to keep it wind and weather proof and safe from collapse, vandalism or theft.Mr Hill told the North Somerset Times earlier this month that working drawings were currently being drawn up for the development and that he hoped work would start in July.North Somerset Council spokesman Steve Makin said the urgent works notice was being drawn up as a precautionary measure.Mr Makin added: "We are not currently serving an urgent works notice on the owner of the hotel."However, we are getting all the paperwork in place so we can serve such a notice if the owner does not start work on the hotel as expected.