Midlothian Councillors have given planning permission for a new million hotel to be built at Shawfair Business Park beside the newly opened £1.9m Sherifhall Park and Ride facility on the A7.

The new 4 star, 148-bed Hampton Hotel is designed to meet demand from the business and tourism market throughout the Lothians and will employ about 50 people when completed.

Councillor Russell Imrie, Midlothian Council Cabinet Member for Strategic Services and chairman of the council's planning committee said: "Not only is this 'gateway' development a massive shot in the arm for the Midlothian economy, it will also help to attract further business investment into Midlothian.


"We're highly pleased with this new hotel because it is a major building block in our long term strategy to create 10,000 new jobs by 2020 in Midlothian.

"With the new hospital we recently approved for the Shawfair business park - and together with the new housing, new schools and new retail and commercial developments planned for the Shawfair new town over the longer term - it shows we’re really getting things moving forwards for Midlothian."

A recent study by Scottish Enterprise concluded: "A range of 3-star and 4-star hotels should be developed in the Lothians to support business and tourism needs along the A720 ring-road corridor and the life-sciences commercial cluster around Penicuik in Midlothian.

"We see a growth in tourist accommodation by 50% to 2015 - with 797 hotel bedrooms required to meet this demand."

(GK/JM)