WORK has started on a £9.5 million spa extension at an award-winning North Yorkshire hotel.

Rudding Park Hotel, near Harrogate, has started its spa extension project, which will feature a roof top garden with outdoor treatment areas, hot tubs and a hydrotherapy pool, after securing financing support from Santander Corporate and Commercial.

Bosses at the independently-owned hotel, which has been named the Best Hotel outside London for the last three years, say they want to "recapture Harrogate's Victorian heritage as a destination for spa treatments."

Peter Banks, managing director at the Grade I Regency house hotel, said: "We are delighted to be working with Santander on the next exciting phase of the development of Rudding Park.

"Together we will produce a destination spa that will recapture Harrogate’s Spa heritage. Alastair and the team at Santander have been very flexible and helpful in funding this fantastic project and we look forward to working closely with them over the coming years."

Rudding Park has undergone constant and extensive development over the last 20 years as the owners continue to reinvest in the property.

Alastair Morris, relationship director at Santander Corporate & Commercial, said: "We are both delighted and extremely proud to have been chosen by the board at Rudding Park to be their new bankers and support this project.

"Rudding Park has an enviable reputation and is recognised far beyond Yorkshire for excellent service and understated luxury.

"The winner of more than 100 awards underpins the quality of the operation and especially its people. The new development has been sympathetically designed and we have no doubt it will be a huge success.”

Lupton Fawcett Denison Till, which has offices in York, has advised Santander on the deal.