Sutton Bridge hotel to be replaced by shops and flats?

The fire-wrecked Bridge Hotel is destined for the bulldozers and the site used for a parade of shops with flats above.

Coun Terry York said he understood the hotel had changed ownership - selling for £150,000.

He said the new owner, a man from Peterborough, had been speaking to current shop owners about his plans for the hotel.

Coun York told Tuesday’s parish council meeting: “He is going to demolish it completely and put a parade of shops down there with flats above.”

The derelict hotel has been targeted over the last few years by vandals and squatters.

In August 2016, the hotel was further damaged following a fire that Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue blamed on arson.

The hotel was once the hub of the village, and some fought to save it as a key part of the history of Sutton Bridge.

But gradually there has been acceptance that it should go.

Council chairman Coun John Grimwood welcomed news that it is to be demolished.

He said: “It has been a blight on the village for so long.”

The hotel was formerly owned by Mark Andrew, who is believed to have passed away.

Coun Dave Summers told Tuesday’s meeting that the former Royal British Legion Social Club building had sold.

* A resident complained that the grounds of the Bridge Hotel were being targeted by fly-tippers and a big freezer was among items dumped.