LEISURE group Whitbread has revived plans to build a budget hotel in Huddersfield.

The group hopes to begin work this summer on a 50-bedroom Premier Inn to stand alongside its existing restaurant fronting Aspley marina.

The hotel, which is likely to create between 15 and 20 full and part-time jobs, will be built on part of the car park and land currently occupied by a number of outbuildings.

Whitbread was granted permission for a hotel development next to The Aspley three years ago, but the scheme was never implemented.

The new plan is based on that existing permission and a new application for about 18 new bedrooms – to be achieved by converting the existing outbuildings.

Jim Francis, project and programme manager for Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants, said: “We are looking to start work this summer on a new Premier Inn for Huddersfield to complement our successful Table Table restaurant and expand the choice we offer our customers in the town.

“We’re proposing a 50-bedroom Premier Inn which, as well as offering a warm welcome, will help create new jobs in the town and deliver further welcome investment.”

A spokesman for Whitbread said the company was “enthusiastic” about opening a new hotel in Huddersfield.

The company has previously identified Huddersfield as a key location – partly due to the success of its existing Premier Inn at Ainley Top and its “cosmopolitan cafes and restaurants and high street shops”..

Unlike upmarket hotels, Premier Inn has fared well during the recession – as corporate customers “traded down” from four and five-star hotels to save money.

The chain is now recognised as the UK’s largest and fastest-growing hotel brand with 578 budget hotels and more than 40,000 rooms across the UK and Ireland.

The spokesman said the company had a target to get up to 55,000 rooms, adding: “While our rate of growth is not as rapid in 2010 as it was in 2008, we are still expanding.”

Premier Inn bedrooms feature en-suite bathroom, TV with Freeview and WiFi internet access. The hotels also feature a bar and restaurant inside the hotel or on an adjacent site – as will be the case at Aspley.

Whitbread is the UK’s largest hotel and restaurant company in the budget sector. Along with Premier Inn and Table Table, its brands include Beefeater, Brewers Fayre and Costa Coffee.

The group employs more than 33,000 people and serves 9m customers every month in its 1,800 outlets across the UK.