Policy information sourced from Barking and Dagenham Barking Town Centre Area Action Plan DPD

POLICY BTC4: HOTEL DEVELOPMENT

The Council will encourage the provision of hotels within the town centre (as defined on the Inset Proposals Map) and regards the inclusion of a hotel in the mixed use development for the transport interchange site at Barking Station (see BTCSSA3) as particularly appropriate.

Proposals for new hotels outside the town centre will be resisted although the Council will view favourably the expansion of the existing cluster of hotels fronting onto the A406 (as defined on the Inset Proposals Map) subject to proposals conforming with the relevant policies of the Borough Wide Development Policies and having no unacceptably adverse traffic effects on local roads, the A406 and the Strategic Road Network. Proposals must also be of a high quality of design, improve the current frontages to the A406 and include measures to provide better pedestrian links with the town centre.

  • Barking’s proximity to London and its excellent public transport links to it make it a suitable hotel location, particularly in the light of the 2012 Olympics. Hotels are also uses that one would expect to find in a Major Centre such as Barking. However, apart from a cluster of budget hotels fronting onto the A406 and a recently opened hotel as part of the Town Square Phase 2 development, there are no hotels within the commercial heart of the town centre.
  • The requirement for any proposals for expansion of the A406 hotels to be of a high quality design is in order to improve the look of what is a highly visible but utilitarian frontage to the A406. Improved pedestrian links to the town centre will secure some benefit to the town centre economy from those staying there rather than as at present these functioning as motels with little or no relationship to the surrounding economy.

For more information please see the Barking Town Centre Area Action Plan DPD