Chantry Centre plan includes 50-bed hotel

The site, which includes the ramshackle listed Chantry Cottage, has lain dormant for 20 years.

Kailash Estates Limited has submitted a planning application to Test Valley Borough Council for a mixed scheme which will link directly into the existing Chantry Centre.

It incorporates about 23,000 sq ft of retail accommodation, a 50-bed hotel and residential apartments.

The hotel will be let to a major nationally branded group and will provide much-needed overnight accommodation, mainly targeting the business community.

Kailash says the retail outlet will be let to a single occupier and talks are at an advanced stage with an international clothing brand.

They say the new shopping space will provide a 'massive lift not only to the existing shopping centre but will serve to increase the choice for the people of Andover'.

Gareth Gerner, partner of Damond Lock Grabowski and Partners - the London-based architects who designed the scheme - said he believed the proposal addressed the combined objectives of increasing the level of commercial activity in the town while providing an attractive faade to West Street and Chantry Street.

"At present the people of Andover are faced with a derelict site and the blank rear walls of the existing shopping centre," he said.

"I hope that these proposals will bring further vibrancy and vitality to this corner of the town centre."

Mr Gerner anticipated that development of the site could commence as early as spring 2005 with completion and trading aimed for spring 2006.

Mr Gerner said the Chantry Cottage issue was a sensitive one, and the current plan was to relocate the building to near St Mary's Church.

"We have a very careful plan for how the building is going to be moved and we are currently writing a method statement," he said.

This will detail exactly how the building is going to be relocated.

The architects are also in discussions about renovating the building and its future use.