A HOTEL chain has said it is ‘taking a moment’ to review its plans for a boutique hotel in a former RAF building which has been vacant since 2020. 

Amport House has been acquired by Another Place, which currently has hotels in Cornwall and the Lake District, to open a 48-bedroom boutique hotel.

Last month, on Thursday, October 12, Test Valley Borough Council’s northern area planning committee approved the plans, which would see Amport House be known as Another Place the Garden.

READ MORE: Andover BID will run for five more years after re-ballot

Another Place has now said: “We’re very pleased that the planning committee granted our planning application for Amport House. We are taking a moment to review our plans and will share an update when we can.”

The application said that Another Place is a brand that is “all about allowing guests to be active and social in a relaxed style of hospitality".

It continued: "In order to create a sustainable hotel use and restore the Grade II Listed Building the hotel needs to offer certain key facilities that are interlinked with the hotel and essential to the overall brand."

The hotel will include a swim club, kids club, including an outdoor play area, bar and restaurant, along with woodland cabins.

SEE ALSO: Andover's only dedicated record shop celebrates five years of trading

The application continued: "Rich in heritage and character with formal gardens, vast grounds and open views across the English countryside, Another Place The Garden will offer a unique space for the local community and guests to relax and let go, while connecting with the sense of history and place so deeply rooted in every brick, walkway, copse, clearing and vista.”

The plans had faced 39 letters of objection with concerns that Another Place had not provided enough information on how traffic would be managed during construction and following the opening of the hotel.

Within the report to councillors, which recommended approval, it said: “Offering the use of the facilities to the local population will provide an obvious public benefit. The proposed use would also provide jobs both during the construction phases and the running of the facility. It is considered that the finding an appropriate long-term viable use for Amport House is important and that converting the site into a hotel will secure its future.”

Amport House is a mid-nineteenth-century Grade II listed country house set in historic gardens. The house was requisitioned in the Second World War by the Royal Air Force, and in 1957 the RAF bought the house and grounds. In the 1990s the house became the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre.