A budget hotel chain has made a fresh move to try and persuade council chiefs to go into partnership and create a new site in Weymouth.

Travelodge is inviting Weymouth & Portland Borough Council to enter into a hotel partnership scheme which will "support local regeneration, create jobs and boost the economy".

The firm has seven hotels around the country operating under a local authority partnership scheme and now it has set its sights on Weymouth. In the budget hotel brand the resort has two Premier Inns but as yet no Travelodge sites.

Travelodge, which has 550 hotels nationally, intends to add another 200 in the next decade and says working with local authorities is a key element of the plan.

Hotels in the programme are built on surplus local authority land, with the funding provided either from council resources or via low-cost funding from the Public Works Loan Board or third party resources.

Upon completion, the council has the choice of either retaining ownership of the hotel and receiving an annual rent or selling the hotel with Travelodge as its operator.

The firm first proposed the idea to the borough council three years ago but nothing came of it.

With more hotels operating under the scheme, Travelodge said it felt the time was right to write to the council again.

Cllr James Farquharson, spokesman for economic development at Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, said: “We’re interested to see Travelodge’s desire to invest in the town. This shows the confidence investors have in Weymouth and Portland.

"We have ambitious plans for the borough and will look at all options to bring investment to the area.”

During the last three years, Travelodge has completed seven local authority development partnership deals – Aylesbury, Bicester, Dudley, Eastleigh, Redhill (scheduled to open end of 2017), Telford (opening 2018) and Thetford.

The chain’s latest opening, in Dudley, was funded from Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Hinton Properties, Travelodge and Aviva.

Travelodge chief executive Peter Gowers said: “More and more local authorities are under pressure to find ways to help regenerate their historic town centres and local communities. Adding a low-cost hotel like Travelodge is an increasingly attractive choice.

“We are looking for more sites to drive our expansion programme and we are writing to more than 200 other local authorities, to invite them to consider how Travelodge can act as a catalyst to drive their local development agenda.”