BREWERY bosses face a long wait for a decision on their plans for a hotel in Chigwell.

A two-day inquiry in Epping last week ran out of time and will resume late next month to give Chigwell Parish Residents' Association a chance to have its say.

The inquiry follows an appeal by Bass Taverns into the district council's decision in April to turn down plans for a 34-bedroom hotel on the site of the Three Jolly Wheelers pub in Chigwell Road.

The council says the proposed building is too big and would have an overbearing impact on nearby homes.

Bass Taverns says modifications to its plans, which reduce the height of the building, will make it less intrusive to Brunel Road and Love Lane residents.

It says nearby homes would mainly look out on to the side of the proposed hotel which would be softened by tree planting. It also says it will provide job opportunities.

Improvements, agreed by the county and district councils, have been made to the access.

The company was given permission for a bigger 40-bedroom hotel in February 1991, but later submitted the current plan with a lower building and new landscaping scheme.

It says that if its appeal is unsuccessful, it will go ahead with the 40-bed scheme.

The district council says that when the 40-bed scheme was approved there was a builder's yard, not houses, next door.

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