Work starts on demolition of historic Lymm Hotel

WORK has started on the demolition of the historic Lymm Hotel – to the fury of local people who campaigned to save the building.
To rub salt in the wounds, contractors arrived unannounced at 8am – and hotel advertising boards bearing the words “Let’s celebrate” were left standing.
Local resident Alan Williams said: “It might have been tactful to remove the ‘Let’s celebrate’ signs first.
“Trees started coming down at 8am – no warning, no notice to neighbours.
“It’s going to be painful over the coming weeks to watch this important part of Lymm’s history being ripped apart.”
Borough and parish councillor Ian Marks said: “It’s a very sad day now that the demolition has actually started and local people are very angry.
“It was a disgraceful planning decision by the borough council and as a result an important part of Lymm’s history will be destroyed.
“No notice that work was about to start was given to neighbours.
“We will have to keep a watchful eye on the demolition work because the hotel is on a dangerous stretch of road, near to the very bad bend near the entrance to the golf club.
“This road is already hazardous and will become even more so when the hotel site is redeveloped…
“We must keep a close eye on what is happening on the site, particularly in respect of the felling of trees.
“We don’t want to see protected trees being felled because once they have gone, they had gone for good.”
It was in December that Warrington Borough Council’s development management committee controversially gave permission to remove all the buildings on the hotel site and replace them with a children’s nursery, a residential care home and retirement-with-care apartments.
This came after a lengthy campaign by residents and local councillors to retain the hotel, a building steeped in local history which once housed the Brazilian football team, including the legendary Pele, and also a number of England and overseas cricket teams.