THE new owners of an historic North-East hotel have announced plans to revamp the troubled site and create jobs.

The Best Western Grand Hotel in Hartlepool has been purchased by Shepherd Cox after a difficult six months for the hotel and its guests.

A £45,000 investment has been made in new plumbing and there are plans to increase the number of bedrooms and recruit up to 10 additional staff.

Building of the Grand Hotel was started in 1899 by John Duckberry, who had a vision of creating the largest, grandest hotel in the North-East. When it was completed in 1901, the hotel had 100 bedrooms. However, it failed to be financially viable and in 1912 was purchased by the Great Northern railway. Commuters would arrive at Hartlepool train station on Church Street and be ferried via horse and carriage to the Grand Hotel.

The hotel was sold in 1983 to West Hartlepool Steam Navigation amid pressure on nationalised industries such as British Rail to consider asset disposal. The management at the time, led by Peter Land, tried to establish a management buyout, but the hotel was sold by open tender, realising a much lower value for the taxpayer.

The hotel was sold again in 1997 to private investors and then to Tavistock Leisure in May 2007.

The hotel has now passed to Hertfordshire-based property firm Shepherd Cox.

A spokesman for The Best Western Grand Hotel said "The sale of the hotel will have a great positive impact on the future of the business. The hotel will look into increasing its bedrooms, services and hopefully creating more jobs in the local area."

"The hotel has been through a tough period with bedrooms experiencing difficulty in delivering hot water to guests, the hotel staff have been fantastic in helping up get through this difficult period and we are all delighted the issues have now been resolved. It's a wonderful building, steeped in history. I'm excited to see what's to come, and to show off the Grand Hotel in a way it was intended to be seen."