Travelodge is to build its new 85- bedroom hotel in Epsom on the site of The Comrades Club, the 500 member club in The Parade.

The new development will safeguard the future of the club and it has also been welcomed by the Surrey Chambers of Commerce as providing a major boost to the town in the grip of the recession.

The hotel, right in the town centre, will create 25 jobs, eight full-time and 17 part-time, with many of the new staff recruited via Job Centre Plus.

If the planning application succeeds, work on site may well start this summer, with the Travelodge (and new Comrades Club facility) open for business by late spring next year, in time for the 2010 Epsom Derby.

Travelodge has been looking for an Epsom site for some years and recently announced that it had exchanged contracts on 12 new proposed UK hotels, including Epsom, as part of its latest £77 million expansion package.

A detailed planning application to develop the Epsom site will shortly be lodged with Epsom and Ewell Borough Council,showing how the proposed Travelodge will incorporate The Comrades Club which was set up in 1917.

Originally a veterans’ club, The Comrades Club is now a members’ club for the local community.

Peter Leaver, the Comrades’ company secretary, says: “We are thrilled at the prospect of new club premises.

"Further, the sum we are due to receive from the developer will eliminate our debts and provide us with a significant future annual income.”

Nick Dines, head of corporate communication at Travelodge, says: “We are delighted that an Epsom site has become available and extremely happy to be safeguarding the future of the Comrades Club.

"We have long identified the town’s need for a branded budget hotel.

Pauline Hedges, head of policy and representation at Surrey Chambers of Commerce, said the Epsom news was ‘fantastic’ for the town.

“In the grip of severe recession, we need news like this to blow away the blues and to show that people like Travelodge are displaying faith in our communities.

“Epsom is short of hotel capacity, yet it attracts people for numerous reasons, not just horse racing, and is a lovely little town in its own right.

“The planned Travelodge will be a boost for jobs, provisioning, entertainment, restaurant and retail custom within Epsom and for attracting other businesses to the town.”

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