Owners of Chorley's closed Brook House Hotel reveal the reason behind evicting its wedding venue tenants

The Brook House Hotel closed its doors in April, leaving wedding parties and private functions out of pocket and in a frantic search for alternative venues.

One such event at the Clayton-le-Woods hotel was meant to be the wedding of Jemma Abbott and Daniel Sergeant who were planning to host their reception there on July 12.

The husband and wife to be paid the tenants £2,000 with a refund not offered after hearing about the closure.

Now the hotel’s owners, brothers Pradeep and Akshay Sobti, have revealed the situation behind the closure.

“Unfortunately the finances did not work out”, Pradeep explained.

“We were not paid rent by the tenants since February. Even before then we did not charge a full rate for four months.

“I can assure everyone we are not the villains here.

“To all the people with bookings, all we can say is we are really sorry. I really hope customers can get something back. It’s really sad when these things happen.

“I’m a father with a 16-year-old daughter; I wouldn’t want it for my daughter’s own future wedding so I get it.”

Mr Sobti added: “I really wish we could run the hotel ourselves – especially now with the name and reputation going down because of this – but it’s not economical because we are based in London.”

The Sobti brothers, who have been freehold owners of the hotel through their parent company M&G Sobti Ltd since September 2014, are now pushing ahead with plans to turn the hotel into 14 apartments, as revealed in the Guardian last month.

The plans are expected to be approved by Chorley Council’s Development Control Committee when it meets this evening (Tuesday, May 21), subject to financial contributions to off-site public spaces in the borough.

Pradeep explained: “It’s been on the table for the last six to eight months. The intention was never to go ahead as long as tenants were paying rent.

“We are now working with the council on this. It’s a business plan and the best that we have.

“It’s a beautiful building and a beautiful place. We don’t want to leave it as an abandoned property.”

Mr Sobti also revealed that since the hotel’s tenants were evicted a number of break-ins have happened at the property.

“We’ve been left high and dry,” he said.

“We have already had break-ins to steal all the copper piping and the boilers so we have had to put someone there now to stop them happening. It’s really sad.

“I really, really hope we can now go in the right direction.”