A BUDGET hotel has been added to plans for Dorchester’s Brewery Square development in a move that could create an additional 45 jobs in the county town.

After a successful first phase of the development, which saw all retail units and apartments snapped up, work on phase two is about to begin.

As part of that second phase developers want to build a 76-bed budget hotel in what will be known as the Ammonite building off Station Road.

The building has been designated for 48 flats but Brewery Square Ltd has applied for planning permission to reduce the number of apartments to 14 and include the hotel as part of the scheme.

Brewery Square co-director Andrew Wadsworth said terms had already been agreed with a ‘high quality national operator’, subject to planning consent from West Dorset District Council. Mr Wadsworth said the hotel would be a ‘terrific boost to employment’, creating an extra 45 jobs in Dorchester on top of around 600 posts that the scheme is already expected to deliver.

He said: “It is an important part of the next phase and a great addition to the mix.”

The budget hotel is designed to ‘complement’ a 48-bed four-star hotel already planned for development in The Brewhouse and Mr Wadsworth is confident there is enough demand in Dorchester to cope with the two hotels, as well as a planned 60-bed hotel in the Charles Street development.

He said: “Dorchester is poorly served in terms of hotels. There is a significant shortage – that applies to West Dorset in general but particularly in the county town. What we are doing here is providing a quality budget hotel with 76 rooms alongside a four star hotel.

“The work we have done in analysing the market shows there is enormous capacity for further hotels and neither we nor the operator are concerned about the fact there is a hotel proposal for Charles Street.”