WORK to build the largest hotel in Hambleton district is set to start as planners await blueprints for 600 homes alongside it.

It is understood the 65-bedroom Premier Inn hotel and 66-cover restaurant on the Sowerby Gateway estate, could open to guests early next year, with building work scheduled to be undertaken for up to 59 hours a week.

Following changes to £5m three-storey building's design following a public consultation last year, residents and traders expressed little concern about the scheme before it was passed by planners, who also granted permission to extend the three-storey building, off Topcliffe Road, Sowerby, to 83 rooms in future.

Councillors said the budget hotel chain would cater for a fresh market and, with the completion of the A168 junction, would attract guests travelling between the A1(M) and the North-East.

It has been estimated the hotel will provide accommodation for an estimated 23,230 overnight stays a year, and will have the potential to attract substantial visitor spending in the Thirsk area of around £1.01m.

Alongside creating 60 full-time equivalent jobs for up to ten months during its construction, the hotel will employ about 30 staff, while the proposals are expected to lead to 123 jobs being generated across the region as well as adding viability to shops and services from visitor stays.

A Premier Inn spokesman said: "We feel that we have a lot to offer the town. A new Premier Inn hotel will bring many benefits to Thirsk."

Hambleton District Council leader and Sowerby councillor, Mark Robson, said while there were numerous guesthouses and smaller hotels in the area, Premier Inn would cater to a fresh market, particularly with the completion of the A168 junction.

He said alongside those travelling across the region, the hotel would attract more people attending Thirsk Races to stay overnight.

Cllr Robson said developers were expected to submit detailed plans for the remaining homes on the estate along with a fresh timescale for the building of a long-awaited four-way junction on the A168 south of the town, work on which has yet to be started.

Ahead of the estate being granted planning permission in 2011, developers agreed to complete the junction by September 2013, six months after the first house on the estate was occupied, before the road scheme was beset by financial issues.