The go ahead was given today for the Solna Hotel in Liverpool's Sefton Park to be converted into a rehab and detox centre for alcoholics.
The city council's Planning Committee approved the plans despite strong opposition from local residents and two of the local girls’ high schools, St Hilda's and Bellerive.
The application was backed by Assistant Mayor Roz Gladden who is also the council's Cabinet Member for Adult Services. She said Mayor Joe Anderson was also supportive.
Two of the local councillors, Green members Sarah Jennings and John Coyne, also backed the scheme.
The battle of the Solna, closed as a hotel for over a year, centred on whether a Victoria villa on the perimeter road of one of the country's most famous parks is a suitable location for a rehab centre for alcoholics.
Applicants Transforming Choice, a newly established community interest company, will take residental and day clients referred by GPs, the NHS as well as other agencies such as the Probation Service.
Co-director Carol Hammett, who has worked as a qualified counsellor in the city for some years, says she is confident the management protocols will be a trendsetter in the way people with drink problems are helped. Clients will all be carefully assessed and have to sign a behavioural agreement.
“We’ll have people coming to the Solna from all over the country to see how we operate,” she predicted.
'Welcome'
The committee have given temporary consent for 12 months, with a number of strings attached.
Cllr Gladden said: “Currently we have to send people with drink problems to facilities hundreds of miles away. I welcome this centre and the people running it know they themselves are on probation for a year.”
Objectors were not reassured. Paul Taylor, deputy head of Bellerive College in Ullet Road, told the committee: “As a school we are strongly opposed to this. I am responsible for the pastoral care of 900 girls aged 11 to 18.”
Happier timesHe told the committee he had once stood in the same spot in the council chamber, opposing a plan for a centre for ex-offenders, and he had been forced to call the police on a number of occasions.
“We see problems if this is approved,” he told councillors.
The manager of the nearby Alicia Hotel, now operated by Best Western, also objected, describing the park as a major tourist attraction.
Ex Lord Mayor and one time city councillor Frank Doran lodged an objection, telling the committee: “You should consider the impact this place will have on people who have to live in the area.”
A procession of local residents objected, but the committee members unanimously backed the plans.
The centre is expected to open early in the new year. Transforming Choice will initially rent the former hotel, but director Ms Hammett says the company eventually hope to purchase the building outright.
The aim is to have beds in the centre sponsored, with other income generated by fees from referring agencies.
