A property developer has defended plans to replace a popular hotel and community hub with a retirement home complex.

Retirement home operator McCarthy Stone could become the new owners of the Fairways Lodge Hotel site after its landlord put the property up for sale last year.

The site, off Bury New Road, has been in use as a hotel for around 20 years.

As well as being a hotel, the property is a community hub and provides leisure and sport facilities, including a gym and squash courts.

The application has garnered more than 100 objections from residents and prompted a neighbour to launch a campaign to save the Fairways lodge, saying the hotel “brings the community together".

Bury Times: The Fairways Lodge off Bury New Road, Prestwich is up for sale

A spokesperson for McCarthy Stone says it has exchanged contracts with its current owner subject to the approval of planning permission for 52 retirement living apartments.

READ MORE: Fairways Lodge: campaign launched to save popular hotel

It says it believes Fairways Lodge Ltd, which operators the hotel, is currently occupying the property on a lease which expired in March 2020, holding over on the previous terms.

Bury Times: Residents have launched a campaign to save the Fairways LodgeResidents have launched a campaign to save the Fairways Lodge (Image: Brenda Carthy)McCarthy Stone, which has also run Broadfield Court on Park View Road since 2016, said it had consulted with nearby residents and had been “encouraged by their feedback,” adding that it is “looking forward" to the council determining our planning application.

The spokesperson added: “ We are excited by the opportunity to bring more of our specialist, high-quality properties for older people to Prestwich.

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“If we are successful in gaining planning permission at Fairways Lodge, this development will be the second in Prestwich, joining the popular Broadfield Court on Park View Road, which was constructed in 2016.

“We believe that our development will deliver a range of benefits to Prestwich including freeing up larger family homes in the local housing market via those downsizing to our development, leading to increased spending in the local economy of approximately £635,000 per annum and saving local health and social care services more than £230,000 each year through the provision of lower-risk, specially adapted homes.”