DEMOLITION work on a Swindon hotel that closed three months ago with the loss of 45 jobs is set to start next month.

An application has been lodged with Swindon Borough Council to knock down the South Marston Hotel, but they show that the original vicarage is to be saved.

Contractors could start work on November 24 if the notification is approved by the council.

When the 60-bed hotel closed in July the 45 staff were told they would not be paid that month’s wages. Originally they had been told the hotel would be shutting down at the end of this month.

But they stayed on to ensure Adam Saunders and his bride Amanda Mularczyk’s £4,200 wedding reception went ahead.

The couple had only found out a few days before the closure when Adam went to drop off things for the reception and faced not having a reception at all.

Proposals to replace the hotel with 72 homes were revealed by the owners in December last year following a report that said it was no longer sustainable and revealed it had lost £1 million since 2007.

The retention of the vicarage pleased South Marston Parish Council. Chairman Colin McEwen, said “This highlights both the strength and weakness of the draft neighbourhood plan.

“We were not able to insist that the club was kept open, but citing the Old Vicarage as a heritage building has provided evidence for it to be retained to provide a focal point amongst the proposed modern housing.”

The planning application said that although it had expanded considerably over the years to provide extra guest accommodation, conference facilities and a leisure complex, it had faced increasingly tough competition from other hotels in the area.

Local residents were upset at the loss because many of them made use of the leisure club and it hosted several groups and classes. More than 130 of them objected to the plans.

Following the closure an online auction was staged to sell off much of what remained in the building, including a piano, exercise bikes and flat screen TVs.

The demolition will involve stripping the complex of fixtures and fittings and removal of asbestos. Then the newer parts of the building will be carefully separated from the old vicarage which will then be protected by polythene and battens.