CONCERNS have been raised over the delay in demolishing a dilapidated Harlech hotel which has been described as a ‘blot’ on the town’s landscape.

Plans to re-develop St David’s Hotel and an adjoining former Coleg Harlech accommodation block were approved by planners almost eight years ago but work has not yet begun.

Since its closure in 2008 it has been left in a severe state of disrepair and in December last year Snowdonia National Park (SNP) issued a demolition notice on the building to the owners, Aitchison Associates, after being inundated with complaints over the condition of the hotel.

Local councillor Caerwyn Roberts says the condition of the hotel is now having a detrimental effect on tourism in the town.

He said: “Issues surrounding St David’s Hotel here in Harlech continues to worry us all locally.

“The dilapidated state of the site gives a negative impression of the town, the only World Heritage site in Snowdonia National Park and we are all fed up of the blot it has on the town’s landscape.

“Seeing the hotel and the hall of residence in its present condition is, no doubt, a detrimental issue on our tourism sector, locally.”

Due to the presence of bats in the building, demolition can only take place between October and March, when the bats will have vacated the building to hibernate.

In September 2014, SNP confirmed they had spoken with the developers who had submitted plans for a new structure to accommodate the bats and assured that it was their intention to demolish the building in the winter of that year.

Read the full story in this week’s north editions of the Cambrian News