THE Chase Hotel in Gloucester Road closed in 2019 and at the time had 38 bedrooms, staff accommodation and service areas.

The owner Camanoe Estates Limited stated in September 2019 that the hotel had been making a loss and was seeking planning permission for over 100 apartments and five dwellings for the site.

The Chase is a house of historical significance. It was originally built in 1818 by John Cooke. It was later acquired Dr George Strong, circa 1860, an attorney.

The Chase remained as a private residence for several notable people until it was sold in 1927.

After that time, it was briefly used as a school before being converted to a hotel.

The initial plans to create over 100 apartments in 2019 had been controversial and resulted in significant changes to the Ross-on-Wye Neighbourhood Plan.

A local campaign group, Save the Chase 2020, was set up and the group was opposed to any building on the green space and stated that it would prefer the hotel to remain as a hotel and community leisure facility.

The plans for the new proposal have already been presented to Ross Town Council.

The agent stressed that they have gone to considerable lengths to remove the ‘sea of tarmac’.

Matt Tompkins of Tompkins Thomas Planning the agent for the owner, concluded: “Our approach throughout the site is to arrange the accommodation in such a way that it can be inserted softly into the landscape.

“If there is one thing the people of Ross-on-Wye have always done, it is to build confidently. The surrounding streets are full of an extensive variety of three storey detached villas of a wide variety of designs.

“This would seem to us to offer a more appropriate precedent for the type of properties you might expect to find within the Chase Hotel site.”