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08
Mar
Councillors call for action on eyesore hotel in Harrogate
A Harrogate hotel that has stood derelict for years should be redeveloped, say local councillors.
The Kimberley Hotel on King’s Road shut its doors in December 2020, and the owners later filed for liquidation with debts of over £3.5 million.
The hotel has been empty ever since and in 2023 was subjected to an arson attack which caused substantial damage. Drug-taking and anti-social behaviour at the premises became such a problem that North Yorkshire Police had to put in place a special plan to tackle it.
Redevelopment plans
Last year, Leeds-based Torsion Group announced that it was to start work on a major refurbishment of the building in August 2025, and the Stray Ferret later learned that there were plans to build 39 serviced apartments as part of an aparthotel.
But none of that appears to have happened, and the hotel remains boarded up and looks abandoned.
Cllr Peter Lacey, a Liberal Democrat who represents the Coppice Valley & Duchy division on North Yorkshire Council, said:
I have kept a keen interest, alongside local residents, in the sorry state of the hotel and lobbied both North Yorkshire Council planning and the owners to explore ways to get things moving.
Whilst anti-social behaviour at the site has reduced, we seem to be no closer to a solution, despite rumours last summer.
I believe the hold-up is the reluctance of the owner to invest in the property, although the reason for this is unclear given the location and past economic success of the hotel.
The Stray Ferret contacted Torsion Group and the hotel's last known owner, Khalbros, to ask for an update on the building’s redevelopment, but neither has responded.
Enforcement notice
Cllr Austin Wildmore, a Liberal Democrat who represents the Coppice Valley ward on Harrogate Town Council, said:
I and a number of residents have requested North Yorkshire Council to issue an enforcement notice on the owners, which is the start of a process which opens other options to North Yorkshire Council in the mid-term.
The residents I have discussed this with all want to see this rehabilitated or redeveloped and brought back into some form of use, either as a hotel, housing conversion and ideally, commenting in a personal capacity only, social housing.
At the very least, making the facade presentable would go some small way to enhancing its current appearance, but that’s true for almost all derelict buildings on King's Road.
94 King's Road is boarded up and but for sale.
The Kimberley Hotel is not the only property on King’s Road standing empty. Not far away, on the opposite side of the road, number 94 is a large Victorian house that it believed to have been split into nine flats in the 1980s but has stood vacant for some years. Now partially boarded up and in a state of disrepair, it is on the market for £1.1 million.
Cllr Lacey also criticised Conservative-run North Yorkshire Council:
The wider concern is that investment and strategic intent of North Yorkshire Council to ensure economic development in the town is not sufficiently robust and imaginative in the eyes of potential investors to entice both the owners of the Kimberley and others to back the town!
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