BRAMSHOTT and Liphook Parish Council’s planning committee has objected to plans by BMW car dealership Barons of Hindhead to develop the derelict Spaniard Inn site on the A3.

The parish council did not attend the public consultation held in March at the Punchbowl Hotel, despite being invited, where neighbouring councillors from Grayshott and Haslemere gave their approval to the plans.

Without studying the application during the committee meeting on May 15, Bramshott and Liphook councillors called the plans “too overbearing, too close to the A3, and lacking sufficient screening”. Members felt more “respect” should have been paid to the adjacent Canadian Memorial site.

East Hampshire district councillors Bill Mouland and Rebecca Standish have spoken out in favour of the application – declaring it would replace the current eyesore of a “dilapidated and unsafe” building with a “brilliant, prestige business development” becoming the “gateway to East Hampshire”. It would bring much-needed employment opportunities to the Liphook area if approved, they added.

Baron’s head of business Peter Wakefield had said two months ago relocating its business from Hindhead, after 30 years, involved a “compromise”. The BMW and Mini showroom would move to the new A3 site while its storage facility and bodyshop would move to another site nearby.

He said: “Our site at Hindhead is owned by Baron’s and will be closed, once we are able to relocate fully.

“There will be benefits, as we are currently employing 70 people, who are mostly local, which will increase to 100 people, once we open the new showroom.

“It was important for us to find a suitable, central location which is easily accessible by customers from East Hampshire, West Sussex and Surrey, and we have been looking to relocate for the last three years.”

The Spaniard Inn has a checkered history and is said to have been a refuge for a notorious highwayman who struck along the Portsmouth Road. Body snatchers are said to have used the building’s cellars. The shed at the rear was used for practising by a then unknown Fleetwood Mac band.

From the 1950s to the 1970s it was the Seven Thorns Hotel and a busy stop-off point for coaches from London en route to the south coast.

It then became The Spaniard and was turned into The Ravens nightclub.

In the late 1980s the building suffered extensive damage in a fire and has remained derelict ever since.