TODMORDEN'S luxury hotel Scaitcliffe Hall should have a leisure centre, banqueting hall and 16 extra bedrooms in time for the millennium.

The hotel's new owners Roger Sharma and his family will be completing an extension which had been started before the hotel closed last summer.

They bought the hotel last October and reopened it in December for weddings and functions. A modification on the original planning permission for the extension was agreed and work should be complete by the end of June.

Mr Sharma's brother-in-law Popsen Bhardwaj explained: "Work on the extension had already started, but the original plans were to build two banqueting halls, we modified that to 16 first-floor single and double bedrooms and now we have got permission work is continuing.

"The hall also has planning permission for a leisure centre and we will begin its construction in the summer and plan for it to be open by the end of the year."

The owners plan for the leisure centre to be open by the end of the year. The banqueting hall will serve 400 people at a buffet and 200 for a sit-down meal. The leisure centre will have a swimming pool, whirlpool bath, sauna and gym.

Mr Bhardwaj said: "When the work is complete we will have 28 bedrooms offering accommodation for about 50 people. We currently employ 12 to 14 full and part-time staff and we will be looking to double it when the work has been carried out."

Mr Bhardwaj said the family were still undecided what was going to be planned for the new year, but the hotel would be open.

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