A new 119-bedroom town centre hotel looks set to built on the site of a former Woolworths store.

Anglesey Council’s planning committee unanimously approved the bid to demolish the store on Market Street, Holyhead and construct a new five-storey hotel which is set to create around 10 new jobs in the town.

Since Woolworths folded in 2008, the unit has remained largely empty.

In addition to the hotel, the plans also include a 150 square metre restaurant and cafe facility situated on the ground floor.

Planning officers at the meeting at Llangefni had recommended  that the plans should be given the green light, despite the site being within a “highly vulnerable” flood zone, according to Welsh Government planning guidance.

But developers have tried to mitigate the flood risk by raising the lowest floor of the building above the predicted flood level.

Damian McGann,on behalf of applicants, RVDL Developments Ltd, said: “This will be a high quality building of great design which will transform Market Street and improve the view from the port.”

In response to questions over a lack of dedicated parking spaces, he said  there was enough pay and display parking spaces to cope with demand.

He confirmed that approximately half the rooms would be left without windows but this was due to the make-up of the building and a standard procedure when it comes to budget hotels.

But Cllr Shaun Redmond said that having half the rooms left without bedrooms resembled a “prison” and urged members to turn down the plans.

“The development is contrary to the development plan and the high street is under threat of losing its biggest A1 retail unit.

“Only 33 per cent of units on the high street are designated as retail unit following a deterioration over the years, but this would only accelerate that deterioration.

“We need to drive forward our high street but another further food outlet will only put more pressure on the existing businesses.

“People who have put a lot of time and money into developing their bed and breakfast businesses will see the marketplace saturated, causing a pricing war where the small local businesses will be unable to compete.”

But planning officers recommended that the proposals should be given the green light.

Cllr Glyn Haynes said, “We don’t want to see the building continue to decline and have to be flattened like the Crown restaurant down the road, it’ll end up looking like Liverpool after the blitz unless we’re careful

“We have a developer here willing to put money down and invest in the town and I think we should embrace this.