'Tidy up hotel'

HUNDREDS of people are pressing for answers on when a former Clevedon seafront hotel is to be developed.Visitors to Clevedon's Victorian pier have been signing a petition urging the owners of the Royal Pier Hotel to tidy up or start developing the building which has fallen into a bad state of disrepair.Planning permission was granted last year to turn the former hotel into 27 luxury apartments, but no work has yet started. The petition was launched by Clevedon town councillor and Civic Society president Carole Wring.The petition has now gone to Clevedon Pier, collecting 400 signatures in just two days.Councillor Wring said: "It is time that something was done about this building as I can see it being another summer with nothing going on and the building continuing to fall apart."It was given planning permission in September last year and we were promised work would start within three months."But seven months on, there is still nothing happening."The hotel, which was once home to Blitz Nightclub, has already fallen at the hands of vandals. It was badly damaged by fire four years ago and has been broken into by yobbos.Cllr Wring said she was concerned any vandal attacks such as a fire, could threaten the neighbouring pier.She added: "At the rear of the building there are windows and doors open and you can see the roof is caving in. Vandals have been getting in there and it only takes for them to set light to the building and our Grade 1 listed pier would be seriously under threat. This is our heritage seafront and we need to do all we can to protect it."Councillors are set to ask planning officers what the situation is with the building at a meeting of North Somerset Council north area planning committee this month.