A LEADING hotel chain has submitted plans to extend the size of its building in Weymouth.

Whitbread Plc wants to build 39 extra bedrooms at its Premier Travel Inn at Lodmoor Country Park.

The hotel claims huge demand is forcing it to turn away hundreds of people each day during peak months.

The plan is to add a two-storey extension to the rear of the hotel and a three-storey block on the southern side.

Weymouth and Portland borough councillors will be told at a meeting on Tuesday that the town should welcome the scheme after losing more than 400 hotel bed spaces since 2001.

George Molyneux, general manager at the hotel, said: "The reason for the extension is that we are turning away far more people than we are putting up.

"Travel Inn has been a huge success story for Weymouth.

"I would say that between May and October we turn away in the region of 200 to 300 rooms a day."

As part of the plan 40 new hotel car parking places will be built at the site and 30 public spaces created in Lodmoor Park.

If the plan goes ahead it will be the second time the hotel has been granted permission to expand the original 40-bedroom building built in 1999.

Mr Molyneux said: "We are a budget hotel chain offering four-star service and our main customers have always been businessmen.

"But what we have found in Weymouth is that the businessmen who come during the week return at the weekends with their families."

A council report to the management committee says: Councillors will be aware that there has been a continuous loss of hotel bed spaces in the town since the last extension of the Travel Inn.

A total loss of 458 bed spaces since August 2001 with prominent closures including the Sunnywey Hotel, Streamside Hotel, Glenburn Hotel, Tamarisk Hotel, Kenora Hotel and others during that period.' As part of the plan Whitbread has offered £50,000 to create 30 new public car parking spaces in Lodmoor Park to the north-west of the amusement rides.

Councillors will be asked to agree to the principle of the scheme before a planning application is submitted.

Whitbread has offered a premium payment' subject to planning permission and lease agreement.