AN OXFORD hotel is planning a major expansion due to growing demand for rooms in the city.

Bosses at the Oxford Spires Four Pillars Hotel, in Abingdon Road, have applied for planning permission for a new building in its grounds, which will provide another 57 bedrooms, extend the dining room and add another 20 car parking spaces.

The Oxford hotel scene is flourishing, with the latest addition being the Vanburgh House Hotel, in St Michael’s Street, which opened last November.

Revised plans for a new 83-bedroom Travelodge, also in Abingdon Road, will go before the city council’s West area planning committee on Wednesday, April 17, at the town hall at 6pm.

But planning officials are recommending the hotel should not get planning permission.

Four Pillars regional general manager Wendy Procter said: “We have found that in Oxfordshire and Oxford in particular that there is a shortage of beds. Although this is a great position for us to be in, we are having to turn away business.

“There is high demand both from the corporate and leisure markets, with major employers such as BMW and the business and science parks, while a lot of people simply want to spend a weekend in Oxford.

“It is tremendously positive, despite the economy.”

The Spires Four Pillars is already the biggest hotel in the city, with 220 bedrooms.

In 2011, £900,000 was spent on the 16th century Eastwyke House in the grounds to create 10 more boutique bedrooms.

Ms Procter declined to say how much would be spent on the planned extension but she hoped work would start by the second quarter of next year.

A planning application has been submitted to the city council and a meeting with nearby residents has already taken place, to allow them to study the plans.

The closing date for consultation finishes on Friday, April 19, but no date has yet been set for councillors to consider the application.

If the new building is approved, the development will be the second recent major expansion of a Four Pillars Hotel.

Expansion work at the Oxford Thames Four Pillars at Sandford is nearing completion.

It includes 22 new bedrooms, a conservatory, gazebo and additional dining and conference space.

Ms Procter said: “We are getting a lot of requests for weddings and conferences.”