THE Haslemere E Society has come under fire from the owners of the town’s landmark Georgian Hotel for circulating a “biased and negative” letter to members, concerning the hotel’s application for a £2million enabling residential development in the grounds to secure its future.

A statement issued on behalf of the consortium,this week, said: “It saddens us that there are members of the society that are still stuck in the past and think they are fighting ruthless developers all over again.

“Can we remind the community that we are not developers?

“We are five local families consisting of doctors, pilots, retirees, lawyers, mums and designers.

“Can we remind the community we saved the hotel and the 33 staff that work there from such developers and we had the support of the court appointed administrators as the best opportunity to save the hotel, even though we were not the highest financial offer?

“We have had fantastic support from the wider community and our patrons as a whole but because of the biased and negative letter that was distributed by the society we have now had a wave of objections.

“We asked the society if they would send out a further letter correcting these inaccuracies but sadly they refused.”

Responding to the society’s belief that the business would not be viable as a boutique 12-bedroom hotel, the consortium said updating the rooms, raising room rates and lowering costs would make the hotel ‘far more profitable’ and that several hotel groups thrived off creating distinctive 10-14 bed boutique offerings, notably The Pig Hotel Group.

Rebutting the society’s concern the consortium lacked expertise, the group said that before drawing up its plans for the hotel, it had consulted with Ivy Group architect Alastair Downey, Conduit Club exceutive chef Gary Robinson and James Mungo-Ogilvie, of the London Steakhouse group, who went into partnership with Michelin star chef Marco Pierre White.

Responding to concerns about the possible loss of space for functions, the consortium said it was focusing on improving the restaurant and bar for the benefit of residents in the town, and the redesign would increase the existing space and enable the hotel to host functions the same size as now.

Countering loss of parking objections, the group said its proposed plan had one parking space per hotel room, so there would be no change in the parking ratio – and no other new restaurants were required to provide parking as part of their applications.

Stung by the objection Haslemere’s landmark High Street chestnut tree was threatened by a proposed new access, the consortium responded: “Let us be blunt – we love this tree.

“We named our company after the fact it was planted in 1782.

“We want the new entrance to the restaurant to be through the courtyard next to it so that the community passes it and admires it.

“Our intentions are pure for the hotel and we have agreed that we would be bound by a Section 106 agreement to restore the hotel.

“We understand people are resistant to change, but we want the The Georgian to become the beating heart of this community. We urge you to put aside the past and support us.”