PLANNING chiefs are set to give plans to build an £80 million hotel, conference centre and water park at West Midland Safari Park the green light when they meet next week.

Wyre Forest District Council’s planning committee is set to delegate approval for the plans at their meeting on Tuesday, September 15.

The plans, which were announced during the ReWyre autumn conference in November 2011, would see a 250-room hotel, spa facility, 1,000 delegate conference centre and an indoor water park built on the site, near Bewdley.

Nick Laister, senior director at RPS, the safari park’s planning advisor, said: “These plans could turn the Safari Park from a summer attraction, to an all-year round resort.

“It would change from being a one-day visit, to people staying over in the hotel or in the surrounding area.

“This would bring more people to the region, keen to see towns and attractions surrounding the Safari Park.”

A full planning application was submitted to the district council for the water park in August 2014, with outline plans for the hotel and conference centre put forward at the same time.

Bosses say the improvements, which will be built over 10 years, would transform the park into a resort to rival other parks such as Drayton Manor and Alton Towers.

It is also proposed the new facilities would provide 292 new full-time jobs, which RPS have said the Safari Park are keen to hire from the local area as they have done previously.

West Midland Safari Park is already a very popular attraction in the Midlands, which attracts more than 750,000 visitors each year and employs more than 400 staff.

Last year, the Shuttle ran an online poll to see the opinions of its readers regarding whether the Safari Park would benefit these plans.

Forty-two per cent of our readers voted that yes, as it could only bring more people to the park from further away, and 31 per cent voted yes, as everyone loves a good attraction.

Only 20 per cent voted no as they were worried about the animals having to deal with the extra pressure this would bring and even less, eight per cent voted no, the park is good enough without these facilities.