A MASSIVE new hotel complete with leisure complex and golf course, is to be built on the outskirts of Dunmow. Fans of the BBC television programme The Apprentice will have heard winner Simon Ambrose say he was to work on a project involving a hotel being

A MASSIVE new hotel complete with leisure complex and golf course, is to be built on the outskirts of Dunmow.

Fans of the BBC television programme The Apprentice will have heard winner Simon Ambrose say he was to work on a project involving a hotel being built within a mile of one of London's airports.

The Dunmow Broadcast can now reveal the proposed location of the development is Hatfield Farm Park in Bush End, between Takeley and Hatfield Broad Oak.

A spokesman for the Frank PR, the public relations company representing Sir Alan Sugar's Amsgal Properties Ltd, said: "This is just one of many projects Simon will be working on. It will be his responsibility to progress the scheme.

"I can't give you a start date for any construction work, or any time frame being considered.

"However, I can say that the start of any building work is a long way off yet."

Planning permission for the complex was first submitted to Uttlesford District Council on November 13, 1998 by Colin Snape Golf Consultancy, Dorridge, Solihull, then acting as agents on behalf of Amsgal Properties Ltd.

The application for the 470-acre site outlined plans to build a 150-bed hotel covering 240,000sq ft.

There will be a leisure suite that will include a swimming pool, crèche, tennis courts and a club house. Included in the plan are two 18-hole golf courses complete with three shelters for golfers to take refuge from the elements should they require it.

Access roads would link the site onto the B183 and the A1256 (the old A120 Dunmow Road).

"It is not certain there will be two golf courses, as this would depend on what designers think is best for the development. As I said, the project is a long way off being started," said the spokesman.

"Amsgal Properties Ltd is looking for what they have termed an 'operator of an institutional lease, which I have taken to mean someone to look after the day to day running of the whole complex."

As part of his new role within Sir Alan's business empire, Mr Ambrose is also taking his chartered surveyor's qualifications to become a fully qualified surveyor.

A spokesman for Uttlesford District Council (UDC) said: "There are three separate planning applications with regards to this site. All have been given approval with conditions, the most recent in 2002."

View the plans at UDC offices in London Road, Saffron Walden.