Hopes that a Carlisle eyesore will be regenerated were boosted last night as city councillors discussed the future of the derelict Central Plaza Hotel.

Leader of Carlisle City Council, Colin Glover, was pleased to report to the full council at last night’s meeting that progress has finally been made with respect to the hotel’s future. 

He said that although it was early days, there was at least a solution in sight.

He said: “The Central Plaza Hotel is a major concern to all of us and it’s the sort of thing we need to bring forward.

“I believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t believe it’s an overnight solution, but it’s a solution.”

The 65-bedroom hotel has crumbled and become a magnet for homeless people and vandals since it closed 12 years ago. Carlisle City Council spent £77,000 on making the ownerless building weather-tight and has campaigned for something to be done about it for years.

A feasibility study, commissioned by Carlisle City Centre Business Group, concluded that renovating the hotel on Victoria Viaduct would be more cost-effective than demolishing it.

The £10,000 feasibility study, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), examined the likely costs of three possible options for the building: total demolition, partial demolition with some rebuilding, and total renovation.

Total demolition costs were estimated at £5 million. There would be no grant funding for this and it would leave a hole in the city centre unlikely to be attractive to a developer.

The study found it would cost £6.3 million to restore the hotel to a point where a developer would consider taking it over. At least two potential developers are reportedly interested in taking on the project, which would be made possible by grant funding.

Mr Glover emphasised that regeneration was the best option “unless we get someone coming forward proposing to build The Shard in Carlisle.” He met with the commercial director of the Prince’s Regeneration Trust last month to discuss funding possibilities.

Councillor Paul Nedved asked when the council and public would be able to see the feasibility study. Mr Glover explained that it would be up to the Carlisle City Centre Business Group to share the study once the HLF had examined it.