Developers wanting to turn Vicar Lane car park into a major leisure centre have asked the Council to give permission for a hotel in the scheme.

JJ Gallagher has submitted an amended planning application showing the hotel in the scheme which will swallow up Bradford's biggest city centre car park.

The company said it already has hotel operators who are interested in moving on to the site.

And regeneration chief Dave Green said surveys have shown a need for more accommodation with a choice of different prices and types of hotels. "In view of our bid to become European City of Culture it is also important that we should have these facilities."

But today the manager of the nearby Quality Victoria Hotel, Danny Keane, said: "I believe it is well provided for across a broad range of prices as it is."

There was also a blow for JJ Gallagher today from Leeds Council which turned down an application for a restaurant on its multi-million-pound leisure centre at Thornbury.

The Dick Lane complex is almost complete and will contain an Odeon multi-screen cinema.

But Leeds planning committee said there could be road dangers and inadequate car parking.

Gallagher's planned three-storey hotel at Vicar Lane would be constructed of blue metallic-type materials.

It would have a flat roof and be in the heart of the leisure development which would also include a multiplex cinema, restaurant and bingo.

The existing 600-space car park will close when work starts on the development which will provide a new 1,600 space multi-storey car park.

The Gallagher scheme is based on a centre proposed by another would-be developer who pulled out after getting planning permission.

The Council will only have to make a decision on the hotel, which is put in as an amendment.

The new scheme follows the collapse of proposals by JS Finnegan and the Stadium Group owned by multi-millionaire Eddie Healey.

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