AN 83-bedroom hotel has been given planning permission in the hope it will revitalise a dilapidated area of land.
Building work will start soon on a three-storey Sleep Inn hotel and restaurant at Newton Park Services, near the Newton Aycliffe A1M motorway junction.
The scheme was welcomed by Sedgefield Borough Council's development control committee, at a meeting in Spennymoor on Friday.
The council's principal development control officer Charlie Walton said: "It is a very prestigious development at a gateway to the borough, and we hope it will provide some incentive to regenerate the site."
The area houses a McDonalds drive-through food shop, an unused coach park and petrol station.
The new development will include a 107-space car-park.
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