A NEW path could provide the solution to a long-running planning row involving a Cotswold hotel.

The dispute over plans for extra staff accommodation for the Dormy House Hotel near Broadway has rumbled on for many months and district councillors actually turned down the hotel's plans in December last year.

Now a solution could be at hand after the hotel offered to carry out work to create a footpath from the planned accommodation at Longhill Cottages on Saintbury Hill to the hotel about 500 metres away.

The idea is to clear scrub from the roadside verges or even lay a rough pathway on them to reduce the danger of passing cars hitting pedestrians. Cotswold District Council last week agreed to the hotel's plans, provided it can come up with a pathway scheme satisfactory to the county council.

The hotel wants to extend Longhill Cottages, which already accommodates some staff, to create seven more bedrooms and coun Sue Jepson told fellow councillors last week: "That's not a narrow little lane with bends and twists.

"It is quite straight and it is quite easy to see anybody walking down there when you are driving."

Other members disagreed and coun Rod Hooper said: "I still think it is a very dangerous road."