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Norwich City Council says a date to decide whether the Ailwyn Hall in Lower Clarence should be demolished and turned into a hotel has still not been allocated.
Plans to demolish Ailwyn Hall – the former railway social club – and replace it with a 94-bedroom hotel were submitted by Lower Clarence Road Investment Limited in 2021.
After years of waiting, City Hall said in May the proposals were due to be put before its planning committee by the end of the summer but four months on, no date has been set.
Meanwhile, the building continues to be overgrown with shrubs and strewn with graffiti.
The plans have been met with objections from those living nearby, including the Royal Mail, which has a large sorting office next to the site.
Cushman and Wakefield, who wrote to the council on behalf of the Royal Mail, said they were concerned the development would impact future guests, who would have to stay near a sorting office.
They said: “The submitted noise report fails to adequately assess the noise impacts of the adjacent Royal Mail sorting office, which operates on a 24-hour basis.
“There is concern the proposed mitigation measures would not be enough and this would result in complaints from future hotel guests, which could threaten the viability of the sorting office in this location.”
Another person living near the site said: “The construction of the building will increase pollution in the area through noise and air quality and significantly impact the lives of those living in the apartment building.”
This is not the first time plans to turn the derelict building into a hotel have been lodged.
A bid in 2020 to transform the former railway social club into a six-storey hotel was refused by city council officers.
The council rejected the plans because they would be “unduly dominant” and cause harm to the character of the street scene and to the conservation area.
