A CAMPAIGNING councillor has gone to the Court of Appeal to try and overturn her own authority’s decision to build a hotel in Colchester’s Dutch Quarter.

Jo Hayes believes Colchester Council’s planning committee did not have all the facts when it approved an application by Whitbread to knock down a Royal Mail depot on St Peter’s Street and replace it with a Premier Inn.

After two requests for a judicial review were turned down, the Lib Dem councillor has now written to the Court of Appeal, urging judges to force the High Court to look again at the case.

Mrs Hayes believes the prospects of the St Botolph’s Quarter regeneration project, including a three star hotel, will be damaged by the construction of the St Peter’s Street hotel.

But Tim Young, councillor responsible for planning, said it was “extraordinary” a councillor would campaign against her own authority’s decision.

See Wednesday's Gazette for the full story