It has just been announced that a new multi-million-pound hotel complex could be completed in Grimsby by 2010.  This news comes only days after the Planning Committee met to approve the multi-million pounds Wharf Retail Development.

An application for a Radisson Park Inn hotel - including 132 rooms, a gym, shops, a bistro restaurant, and a bar - has been submitted to North East Lincolnshire Council.

If approved, the complex would be built on the site of the former Stones brewery, on Birchin Way, just across the road from the new Shoreline Housing Partnership offices.

Applicant David Jason, director for Heritage London and Hanover, said: “This is a very exciting project for Grimsby and it isn’t the sort of thing we’d plough this much money into if we didn’t think that.

“It will be of huge benefit to Grimsby and could become a focal point.

“The beauty of the site profile is that it is highly visible to traffic flowing in and out of Grimsby.

“It is a cracking site and very well placed with many good businesses around it.

“It is a significant development for us and for Grimsby and I am sure it will be welcomed by people and business users.

“The disused site is one of the first things people see if they are heading into Grimsby on the A180.

Philip Boyce, the project architect is confident that it will be successful. He said: “I’m looking forward to being part of it and it will be a fairly crisp and modern building.

“We are just waiting for planning permission but I’m sure the people of Grimsby will like what they see.” The council is also working with other partners in the hope of seeing other similar projects come to fruition.

You know the tune…… sing along…”Nice work if you can get it”

Britain’s Olympic squad will be outnumbered two to one in Beijing by politicians, civil servants and BBC staff whose trips to China will cost the public almost £7 million, (according to the Telegraph)How obscene is that, when we have people living in poverty in this country? How ever high the cost of living rises there will always be some free-loaders who will milk the system.

Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on culture, media and sport, said: “I’m simply staggered by the amount of money being spent by public bodies sending their staff to the Games for questionable reasons and benefits.

“The Olympics are always an incredible spectacle but that does not give people the right to waste taxpayers’ money. Anyone who does use public funds to go on this type of trip must be held to account and made to justify exactly what they managed to achieve during their attendance in Beijing.”