A MAJOR hotel revamp hoping to serve the Open golf market is likely to be approved by councillors in Wirral tonight.

The £6.5m plan for Kings Gap Hotel, in Hoylake, could see the popular hotel rebranded as a Holiday Inn ahead of the Open, which is to return to the town in 2014.

The proposal involves the demolition of a block fronting The King’s Gap, which is an annex to the hotel, the removal of extensions to the rear and the building of a further wing fronting onto Valentia Road.

The hotel is within the Kings Gap Conservation Area which was designated in April, 2000.

The lighthouse on Valencia Road and St Hildeburgh’s Church, on Kings Gap opposite the site, are both Grade II listed buildings.

A planning officer report said: “The original hotel will be retained with an existing conservatory removed and replaced with a single storey dining room. Demolition of these buildings could be considered to enhance the Conservation Area.”

The site already has planning consent for a similar redevelopment, which was approved in 2008.

However, this approval was for a larger development, and in addition to the renovation of the hotel it included a three-storey linked extension along the Kings Gap where the existing annex is, and along Valencia Road.

The current application is a revision of these proposals which no longer includes the Kings Gap extension and has a smaller three storey rear extension.

The total number of proposed bedrooms is reduced from the 66 previously approved to 56, although the car parking area is larger than the previous approval and has increased numbers of spaces from 56 to 79.