Plans to transform the former Upper Independent Chapel in Heckmondwike into a £2.5 million hotel, restaurant and banqueting suite have been unveiled.

Property developer Margaret Wilson-Clarke said the hotel - to be called Wilson's Independent Hotel- would have 38 rooms, parking for about 60 cars and be either three or four star.

And there are plans to eventually add a swimming pool and gym to make it more attractive to guests.

The huge chapel in High Street, built in 1888, was once described as the "non-conformist cathedral of the north''. But it is now an empty shell.

Mrs Wilson-Clarke has applied for planning permission to Kirklees Council to transform the derelict Grade Two listed building, which has been empty since the 1980s.

Heckmondwike-born Mrs Wilson-Clarke, who owns Dewsbury-based firm Scafell Properties, said: "The entire first floor would house the restaurant and banqueting area and the bedrooms would be on all the three floors above.

"I hope to start work as soon as planning permission is given. I hope to have the restaurant and banqueting rooms open by the millennium and the hotel after that.

"The outside of the chapel will be landscaped and parking will be at the side, as none is allowed at the front.''

Tony Rider, vice-president of Heckmondwike Chamber of Trade, said: "It can't do any harm to bring the building back into use instead of it crumbling into a mess, as it eventually will.

"The hotel will bring business to the town so I definitely think it is a good idea.''

Previous owner Michael Ackroyd had planning permission to turn the chapel into luxury flats, a nursery and museum, but scrapped the £1 million scheme because of a lack of support from the community and put the chapel up for sale in 1995.

Mrs Wilson-Clarke said: "Converting the chapel into flats and a nursery is not feasible because it would not raise enough income to pay for the upkeep of a building of this size.''

She bought the property for £110,000 in July last year and said £6,000 had been spent on repairs to the roof.

Mrs Wilson-Clarke, who owns a house in Spain, said: "I came back from Spain with the intention of turning an old mill in Dewsbury into a hotel but that fell through and then I saw the chapel for sale.''

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.