Additional reporting by Gabriel Morris

A local authority is looking into a possible planning breach after studio flats were advertised as available to rent at a disused Premier Inn.

Gravesham council has raised concerns over plans to let people move into the property, saying it is still listed as a hotel and not a residential building.

The company behind the proposals, Alder Design and Build, says it was given “erroneous advice” and posted the listing slightly prematurely.

It is now changing a planning application for the property so it can hopefully provide affordable housing.

The site, which is in Hever Court Road, Singlewell, Gravesend, was sold by its former owners Whitbread in November.

Under planning law, it remains a hotel but its rooms were being advertised on Rightmove as “studio flats”, for £790 a month, not including bills.

Gravesham council confirmed in December its planning team was unaware of the rooms being potentially rented out.

However, it had received a planning application to expand the property by 16 rooms.

That same application, which has not been decided upon, describes the building’s current use as “a hotel”.

Typically, a planning application for change of use should have been submitted to the council.

The Rightmove listing offering 12-month leases said people could move in from January 18.

On January 6, a council spokesman said: “We are working with the owners of the site to ensure any and all activity taking place there is in line with current planning consents.

“Should any discrepancies be identified, the owners will be advised of any action they need to take to rectify these.”

This week they confirmed: “We are looking into a potential breach of planning regulations at the site and are unable to comment any further at this point.”

Shortly after the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) started asking questions, the listing was removed from Rightmove, but is still available to view via the Internet Archive.

The registered office for Alder Design & Build is at the Premier Inn site.

Project manager Jim Godwin said on behalf of the owners said: “The listing on Rightmove was slightly premature as the rooms were not available at that time and the decision to list at all was based upon some slightly erroneous advice.

“We had been advised by our planning consultant that the proposed use did not constitute a change of use from C1-hotel as the proposed use remained the ‘best fit’ given the available classifications.”

He explained there is one previous case similar to this where a building was able to stay as C1-hotel.

However, for it to keep that, the people staying there had to be more short term than the proposals for the Premier Inn.

He continued: “Hence, the correct purpose group is ‘house in multiple occupation (HMO) in excess of six persons residing in a single building’.

“While the rooms cater for the basic needs of the occupants there are some shared facilities within the building which rules out the rooms being classified as bedsits or studio flats.”

An additional planning application for change of use to a HMO has been submitted to the council since KentOnline made inquiries.

Mr Godwin stressed the need for the rooms due to the pressure on housing in Gravesham and Kent more generally.

He added: “Specifically, the accommodation will provide clean, modern, simple rooms offered at a very affordable rate on short-term lets to satisfy the essential basic needs of a wide spectrum of the residents of Gravesham borough.”

“The key word in this statement is affordable.

“That means affordable to both individuals but perhaps more importantly, affordable to Gravesham council.”