Hull-born developer Tim Fulstow tells Angus Young his dream of building a four-star hotel and conference centre in the heart of Hull is still alive ...
IT'S the lunchtime after the afternoon before. Glasses of red wine and iced water fill the table but no one is celebrating.
Instead, London-based developer Tim Fulstow is reflecting on a turbulent visit back to his home city.
Just over 24 hours earlier, a planning application for his proposed multi-million pound four-star hotel and conference centre development in Hull's Old Town had been comprehensively trashed by city councillors.
Although the council's planning officers had recommended approval for the 18-storey building, the politicians thought otherwise.
Like a boxer on the ropes, Mr Fulstow could only look on helplessly from the public gallery as the verbal blows rained down on his scheme.
"A fag packet," said one. "A mid-level polytechnic from the 1970s," said another.
One councillor even compared the skyscraper to a North Korean nuclear missile silo.
A day later, Mr Fulstow's still shaking his head at some of the comments.
"Has he ever seen a North Korean nuclear missile silo in real life? I doubt it," he says.
The committee's unanimous vote rejected a revised design for the ambitious development is a setback but not, he insists, an unsurmountable one.
A previous design for a 22-storey hotel and a 1,000-seat conference facility on the same spot was approved last summer.
"They went for that one but not this one, that's the top and bottom of it. Now we are going back to that approval and will just have to get on with it.
"The change of design was all about making it a more financially viable project for us and the hotel operators but that is something we have now got to look at again.
"It will be challenge financially but we can't afford to just walk away and mothball this for the next 25 years.
"We've got the planning officers on our side and we've got a good relationship with the council's economic regeneration team. "They can see what we are trying to do here – it's just some of the councillors who don't."
He replays some of the events from the previous day.
"It was like watching an episode of Dad's Army, with people jumping up and down shouting out their lines.
"Perhaps I should be careful what I'm saying because I don't want to get into trouble but we are talking about a really major investment here but it ended up like a TV comedy show."
Mr Fulstow and two of his associates are having lunch in a city centre café following a meeting with council officers to assess their next move.
They say they remain committed to proving the doubters wrong by turning their existing planning permission into reality.
Would-be investors and contractors are in place while an external funding bid to offset some of the development cost is awaiting sign-off subject to final approval.
Originally from the city's Longhill estate, Mr Fulstow first returned home in 2008 to secure planning permission for a proposed mixed residential and office development at the High Street site.
At the time, hopes were high that it could form part of a series of major development projects along the River Hull.
But the £30m scheme became an early victim of the economic downturn and he was forced back to the drawing board.
He returned last year with the idea of a four-star hotel and conference centre.
The striking design for that scheme won unanimous support from the same councillors who turned down the revised design earlier this week.
For contractual reasons, he cannot speak about the hotel chain lined up to operate the 243-room complex.
However, the images accompanying last year's successful planning application and this week's rejected one both feature the Radisson Blu logo.
"What you can say is that this hotel will create 150 full-time jobs and another 300 during the construction period," he said.
Mr Fulstow is happier to talk about Siemens, the global engineering giant which has yet to confirm its long-standing ambition to build a new offshore wind turbine assembly plant in Hull.
"We've been working with Siemens on putting their kit into the hotel," he says, before giving a non-technical explanation of wiring, lighting and heating systems.
"We've been out to see them in Switzerland and they are incredibly keen on this.
"They were one of the first ones on the phone after the committee wondering what was going on.
"They were as disappointed as me but I told them things were still going ahead."
He fields a fourth call on his mobile in the space of 20 minutes, apologises for the interruption and collects his thoughts again.
"I probably shouldn't do interviews," he says after a pause.
"I get a bit carried away because I'm passionate about this scheme.
"Yes, we have probably made a few mistakes along the way but that's life. You pick yourself up and get on with it.
"It's cost me a lot of money but it's going to happen. It has to happen. For me and for Hull."
