15246/1DEVELOPERS behind a £70 million hotel and golf resort scheme are confident it will be open within four years at the latest.

The group has been working closely with statutory consultees including English Heritage and local councils to meet any objections to the plans to convert the early 19th century Tottenham House, near Marlborough, into a hotel.

Plans for the hotel with 148 luxury suites and a championship standard golf course were submitted to Kennet District Council in September.

Behind the scheme is Golf Club Investment Holdings, which is a consortium of three companies Capital and Overseas Holdings Ltd, the Buena Vista Hospitality Group and Conduit Investments Ltd.

The scheme is planned so that the exterior and principal interior rooms of the Grade I listed Tottenham House remains unchanged, a prerequisite of English Heritage.

It is planned to have 18 guest suites in the main building with 128 in new buildings in the former kitchen garden and a further two between the kitchen garden and the old stable block.

A company involving golfing supremo Peter Alliss has been commissioned to design the 18 hole international golf course that will feature a new lake as a feature of the course and provide irrigation.

The Professional Golfers' Association is backing the consortium's plans to build a number of similar centres across the UK, with Tottenham House being the first.

The proposed golf course will occupy 195 acres behind the main house.

Architect Terry Jones, from architects Tripe Wakeham Partnership, said some of the features originally planned by the great 18th century landscaper Capability Brown and which had disappeared when parts of the park became farmland would be restored.

Mr Jones said the golf course was an essential part of the hotel scheme and not a separate proposal.

He said: "The golf course is a fundamental part of the hotel and is not an add-on. Without the golf course there is no hotel scheme.

"The area where we will be creating the golf course was once parkland.

"But it has not been parkland since the Second World War when it was put down to arable, which it still is.

"Most of the park features in that area have been lost over the years but will be re-introduced where possible."

The proposed lake, which has caused some concern locally in case it affects underground water supplies, will serve three purposes, said Mr Jones.

It will serve as a reservoir for irrigating the golf course, as a visual feature of the course and as a playing hazard with the fourth green almost surrounded by water.

"There will be three holes where the lake plays a major part," said Mr Jones.

"We have a commitment from Thames Water that they can supply the water demanded subject to a significant enhancement of their infrastructure to import water from outside the local district.

"It is expected that Wessex Water will also be able to do so."

Although there has been concern about where the water would come from to fill the lake, Mr Jones said talks are continuing to take place with Thames Water and Wessex Water about bringing in a new water main to fill the lake and keep it topped up.

The architect said to answer local concerns, water will not be taken from the underground aquifers by means of boreholes or from a nearby tributary of the River Dun.

"There will be no adverse effects for existing water users, on the aquifers or the river," Mr Jones pledged.

He said Kennet will agree to this as a condition of the planning consent for the scheme.

Great Bedwyn Parish Council and some local residents have voiced concerns about the extra traffic the hotel and golf course would generate.

Mr Jones said issues raised by Wiltshire County Council, the highways authority, had been the subject of consultation and are being addressed.

"We believe that as a result of the discussions the county council reservations will be put aside,'' said the architect.

The developer, said Mr Jones, has agreed to provide visibility displays at certain road junctions and had no construction traffic would approach the site from the west through Burbage and Durley.

Mr Jones said the scheme is on track for completion either in late 2008 or early 2009.

One unavoidable delay would be the settling in of the golf course, which would require a minimum two years after construction before it could be played on.