PLANS for a luxury hotel at a riverside site have been assured after councillors agreed to the building of a block of apartments to help fund the work.

Durham city councillors endorsed the proposals for 108 apartments and 70 car parking spaces at Framwelgate Waterside, which overlooks the River Wear in Durham City, despite objections from conservation groups

Newcastle-based company Closegate Hotel Developments Company already has permission for a £36m hotel on a neighbouring site, but wanted to build the apartments to help fund the hotel development.

The apartments are within the Durham City Conservation area and the settings of the World Heritage site. English Heritage and the City of Durham Trust criticised the apartments plans and labelled them as "strident, conspicuous and out of character".

But members of the development control committee agreed the new apartments would be an asset to the city.

The decision brings an end to the long-running planning saga.

Closegate, which also built the Copthorne Hotel on Newcastle's Quayside, is building a 209-bedroom Radisson SAS Hotel, including health club, conference and banqueting facilities, on the site of the former British Gas and Northern Electric Works.

The company had originally sought to build 142 apartments next to the hotel, but this was scaled down to 108, with the plans including the moving of an electricity substation.

City of Durham Trust honorary secretary Dr Douglas Pocock, who spoke out against the scheme, told the meeting the linking of funding between the hotel and planned apartments was not a material planning matter.

He added the site had not been identified in the 2004 local plan as a development site and there was already an over-provision of residential units in the city.

English Heritage expressed concerns about a seven-storey tower element of the scheme.

Senior planning officer Alan Simpson, recommending approval, said: "English Heritage's concerns about the apartment building's impact on the World Heritage Site and Crook Hall must be given due weight and I am respectful of their opinions and expertise."

But he added: "Any impact there would be, would be of a positive rather than negative nature."

Mr Simpson said the design was contemporary and alluded "to the rhythm of a traditional Durham streetscene".

Closegate director Ken Hunt said after the meeting: "We are delighted that after all the work that has been put in by ourselves and the city council that the plans have finally come to fruition."

The plans were approved by 15 votes to three.