Ramada to open hotel next to M5

An international chain is to open a multi-million pound hotel and conference centre in Oldbury. Ramada is building an 81-bed hotel in Wolverhampton Road.

The four-storey building will also boast a bar, restaurant and meeting rooms.

It is seen as an ideal spot for a hotel, a few hundred metres away from junction two of the M5. The scheme, opposite Asda, is already taking shape and is expected to open this year. Planning permission was granted by Sandwell Council in 2004 but it has taken three years to come to fruition.

The plan also includes a 79-space car park.

The site was originally occupied by the Otis Car Hire building.

That closed down in the 1990s and stood empty for several years.

It suffered repeated vandal attacks which included fires and smashed windows.

The site was eventually bulldozed in 2004 and was left as rubble.

Earlier this year, the land, with full planning permission, was sold off at auction for more than £1million.

In a separate plan, business owners hope to create another 30-bed hotel a stone's throw away from the new Ramada.

The owners of Interiors @ Wolverhampton want to renovate Welcome House, at 999 Wolverhampton Road, into a bed and breakfast with a kitchen and bathroom showroom on the ground floor.

It is being created on the site of Welcome House, which used to be occupied by car rental firm Just4Rent until it closed.

The venture will be Ramada's first in Sandwell, but it already operates a hotel in Wolverhampton and intends to create another as part of the redevelopment of the city centre.

Although work on the building site was today progressing, Sandwell Council's planning department was still waiting to discuss a planning application for the scheme.

A spokesman for Ramada said that the new business was operating as a franchise and the company would not release details of the new owner at the moment.