The expansion of a County Durham hotel and wedding venue has been approved.
A new spa facility will be built at the South Causey Inn in the latest upgrade to the successful site.
The popular family-run hotel and restaurant, located a few miles from the world-famous Beamish Museum, caters for about 400 weddings a year, and has more than 50 rooms. Staff hope the venue can become a “one-stop location for the full spectrum of wedding facilities”.
An existing maintenance and storage building in the grounds of the venue will be repurposed into the spa centre.
A planning statement from the venue read: “South Causey has now become the most significant wedding venue (by number of weddings) in County Durham and is also the most significant hospitality employer in North West Durham. This success has been built on a very extensive range of wedding offers in terms of scale, character and related facilities.
“The responsive nature of the management strategy identified a market gap for groups of wedding-related clients wanting to book shared accommodation for groups of attendees, or pre-wedding ‘stag/hen’ nights, where shared facilities including hot tubs, beauty treatment/make-up spaces and bedrooms could be brought together.”
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The statement added: “As well as fulfilling an additional, complementary function within the business and complex, this repurposing is an opportunity to significantly improve and upgrade the external appearance of the building, while still maintaining its traditional massing.
“The position of this building forms part of the close-knit complex of new and restored buildings, and it is intended that the building be pedestrian accessed via the intimate (visually improved) passageway between the ‘Old Barn’ and the single storey, new “Cottage” bedroom terrace.
"This access has an existing, dedicated disabled parking bay, as well as the company running an electric golf cart for internal guest transfers within the complex.”
In October, Olive & Orchard an on-site hair and beauty salon opened at the venue.
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