PLANS for more than 140 houses and apartments next to a popular hotel in Yarm are being recommended for approval.

Javed Majid, owner of the Tall Trees Hotel where the development will take place, has applied to Stockton Borough Council for outline planning permission for 62 houses and 81 apartments.

His plans come just months after he withdrew amulti-million pound application for 250 apartments owing to housing market conditions.

Mr Majid also has plans to expand the hotel but has told the council he needs the housing development to be approved to allow this to go ahead.

In a report to the planning committee, it states: "The applicant states that if the development does not go ahead, the existing facilities at Tall Trees will be forced to cease trading.

"This point is made in recognition that, without substantial extension and improvement, the hotel cannot attract significant new visitors to the Tees Valley.

"Without increasing turnover, it is not viable in the current climate.

"A t the present time, along with other higher quality hotels, Tall Trees is not a profitable or viable enterprise."

Members of Stockton Borough Council's planning committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss the application.

Tall Trees originally existed as a country residence before being converted into a small hotel in the Sixties.

It is now a 120-bed hotel, having been extensively expanded. The site also included a nightclub but this recently closed owing to financial difficulties.

A total of 12 objections have been submitted by residents living nearby, with the main concerns including an increase in traffic congestion, the start of more developments in that part of Yarm and more pressure on schools and parking.

If the application is given the go-ahead, Mr Majid will contribute £154,000 for a new footpath and cycle link from the development to Yarm station and £100,000 towards parking provision in the town centre.

Mr Majid bought the hotel from former Middlesbrough FC chairman Charles Amer in 1985.

Born in Pakistan and raised in South Yorkshire, Mr Majid previously transformed the former Odeon cinema, in Stockton High Street, into The Mall.

Stockton Borough Council's planning committee meets in Stockton Central Library on Wednesday at 1.30pm.