THE new hotel in Church Road is progressing apace, but it is quite impossible to understand why Stockton Borough Council has borrowed £17m, on which the interest will be absolutely formidable, to build a private Hampton by Hilton hotel in the town.

If Hilton was so convinced that a hotel would be a success, it should have grabbed such a grand business opportunity before competitors could, and have been eager to pay for the erection with its own money.

Why though, when an extraordinarily generous town council sacrificed its ratepayers to fork out instead? Very convenient for Hilton to have a fine new hotel, without the considerable inconvenience of having to pay for it.

A most welcome benefit though is the number of construction jobs created, but regretfully these, by their very nature, will cease when the building of the hotel is completed, and aeons before the accrued debt is paid off. Extraordinarily, some local business organisations have proffered their support for this terribly expensive project even though they, as well as hard-pressed householders, will be picking up the bill for many, many years into the future. These organisations claim that there are too few hotel rooms in Stockton, so one wonders why, sadly, they seem not to have given their support to the commodious Swallow Hotel which was forced to close and stands, very conveniently for guests, business and private alike, at the southern end of the High Street.

Bobby Meynell, Stockton