Hotel expansion brings pledge of new jobs

A health and fitness spa and 20 more bedrooms are being created at Coniston Hotel, Coniston Cold, which already has 50 bedrooms.

The new jobs will take the total created by the hotel and estate to 150.

The expansion, which is also extending the foyer, bar, restaurant and creating a new lounge, is to be completed by the end of this year.

Coniston Hotel founder and chairman Michael Bannister said: “As a conference hotel, we are already having considerable success with corporate events because we are ideally situated between Leeds and Manchester for businesses to escape to from the cities and use our facilities for business and team-building activities.

“However, as more women are reaching senior executive positions and attending corporate events, and men who have been here for business are returning for weekends or holidays with their wives, we have decided to do more to look after our guests and build on our growing success as a true destination hotel.”

He added: “This expansion, particularly the launch of the new spa at the end of the year, featuring a swimming pool, gymnasium, pilates centre, treatment rooms, and an external sauna, will enable us to enhance our services for the whole family. We are all about providing jobs in the rural economy which has had a rough time.”

The Coniston Estate is on land which was once the base of Bell Busk Mill, a well-known silk mill which made sewing thread and once employed 100 people. It was acquired by Mr Bannister in 1968.

The expansion is supported by Yorkshire Bank’s West Yorkshire Financial Solutions Centre through its Investing for Growth initiative.

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