Tendring District Council (TDC) today welcomed an announcement that the UK's fastest growing hotel company is to invest in a vacant site in Clacton Town Centre.

The Ascott Group is buying the former Woolwich Call Centre building in Jackson Road.

And the firm intends to create a 57-room hotel for Travelodge, residential apartments, a restaurant/bar and an extra commercial unit. It has already submitted a planning application to the Council.

Acquiring the property involves a £2.8million investment and the conversion represents a further £10million. In total the scheme is expected to create around 50 new jobs for the town.

Les Double, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration at TDC, said the Council's Regeneration Team has been working with both Travelodge and the developer, Ascott Group for some months.

"It's excellent news that these companies are prepared to make such a considerable investment in the Clacton area," he said. "In the last 20 years the District has lost more than 700 bed spaces in hotels and guesthouses and this will be step towards restoring a few of these."

Cllr Double said an additional benefit is that conference organisers have also had an issue in finding enough bed spaces in Clacton so this development will help to attract both business and leisure tourism to the town.

Travelodge, part of Dubai International Capital, is a major brand and will undertake a lot of promotion and marketing, helping to put the town on the map.

Cllr Double added that it was originally hoped that another call centre could be attracted to the building in Jackson Road.

"We have been working with Barclays since they first made their announcement to see if it would be possible to bring in another call centre," he said.

"Unfortunately that has not been possible and it left serious concerns that the building would remain vacant and unoccupied for an extended period - as has been the case with some neighbouring office accommodation.

"The project will add vitality to this section of the town centre and we are confident it will undoubtedly lead to other developer interest in the future which has to be good news for Clacton and Tendring."

Travelodge has submitted its plans to Tendring District Council and they will go before a future meeting of the Council's Development Control Committee.