Perth Council rejects hotel near Bell Tower

The City of Perth has rejected a proposal to build a 230-room hotel near Perth's waterfront, despite a shortage of accommodation in the CBD.

The council says although the hotel design was attractive, its height of 11-stories is excessive for the Barrack Square site and could overshadow the iconic Bell Tower.

The hotel developer Bil Richardson says the council's concerns are minor and unlikely to stop the hotel being built.

"As for as shadowing and those sort of items, we'll look at those in finer detail but that overall impact is really minimal in the scheme of getting a hotel up," he said.

Mr Richardson says the planned hotel would bring many benefits to the CBD.

The Bell Tower is located on the Swan River foreshore on the edge of the CBD.

"Tourism, infrastructure, the development of the city itself, it's a conduit for people to come into Perth, and for people to get into the city," he said.

Perth City councillor James Limnios criticised his colleagues for their opposition and says the decision was short-sighted.

"We've got so much business and so many people coming in here, 1,800 people coming in here a week, and we don't have enough accommodation," he said.

"Business people are searching for quality hotels and they can't find them.

"That's why I think we need to be more pro-active in this area and have more dialogue with proponents, rather than just knock it back on technical grounds."

In a statement, the mayor Lisa Scaffidi says she accepts the city needs more hotels but believes the scale of the development on that site is not appropriate.

She says the proposed development significantly exceeds the prevailing building heights in Barrack Square, particularly compared to the Bell Tower and the WA Rowing club building.

The WA Tourism Council's Evan Hall says he cannot comment on this particular proposal as he is unfamiliar with it.

He makes the point, however, that Perth's hotel occupancy rates are among the highest in the world.

"It's absolutely critical that we get more hotel development in Perth," he said.

"We need an increase in rooms and we also need an increase in the range of hotels available; three, four and five star for the business traveller and for leisure tourists, and travelling families."

"It's absolutely critical that we get more hotel development in Perth," he said.

"We need an increase in rooms and we also need an increase in the range of hotels available; three, four and five star for the business traveller and for leisure tourists, and travelling families."

The council has recommended a number of changes be made to the proposed hotel.

The State Government manages the development and will have final say on whether the project goes ahead.

Source: ABC News, 13 March 2013