Coastal tourism to be boosted by £5m cottages scheme for luxury hotel

A MULTI-MILLION pound development has been given the go-ahead to build dozens of holiday cottages in the grounds of a luxury hotel on the Yorkshire coast.

The planning application to construct the 46 properties on the estate of the Raithwaite Country Retreat in Sandsend near Whitby has been approved by members of Scarborough Borough Council.

Work on the £5m development, which is being overseen by the York-based company the Skelwith Group, is due to start by the end of the year, with the first of the cottages expected to be completed within 12 months.

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The scheme will also see an education centre built, which will be used by local schools and organisations to learn about the wildlife and natural habitat on the estate.

The Skelwith Group’s managing director, Paul Ellis, said he hoped the new cottages will boost the Yorkshire coast’s tourism by attracting visitors who will stay in the area for longer.

The hotel itself opened in October last year after a £30m project was carried out to transform a stately home, which a multi-millionaire shipping tycoon bequeathed to his Swiss nurse in 1991 – making her one of the richest women in Britain. The Skelwith Group bought the land in 2008 when she gave up the running of the estate.