HOTELS can be synonymous with success and glamour – think the Ritz and Rockliffe Hall – or, if you are unlucky, lead to a Fawlty Towers-style experience that prompts you to leave a scathing review on Tripadvisor.

The Eagles summed it up nicely on their 1970s classic hit Hotel California where they warned visitors to the eponymous venue that: “This could be heaven or this could be hell”.

That line might well sum up the mixed response from local people to the decision by Stockton Borough Council to sink a huge chunk of public money in a new hotel project. Many have wondered why at time when services for vulnerable people being axed and public buildings closed would a council splurge funds on a commercial venture that provides a facility for visitors rather than residents?

Others have welcomed the announcement, saying quality hotel rooms are sorely needed in the town and that the investment is a price worth paying for the economic boost it might deliver.

It would be fair to say that so far most local taxpayers are in the first camp and puzzled that a local authority would make a potentially risky move at a time of austerity and rising council tax bills.

Council chiefs insist their business case is rock solid but there must be an element of risk involved otherwise why would the Hilton hotel group strike a public/private partnership deal rather than stump up all of the cash itself?

We understand these concerns but we also applaud the council for its refusal to simply be a powerless victim of the Government’s savage spending cuts and try to take greater control of its future funding streams.

Stockton is by no means the first council to make such a move and with money from central government set to dwindle even further this is a sign of how public bodies are going to have to take more of a private sector approach to investment.