THE REMAINS of a hotel which was destroyed by an inferno should be demolished and rebuilt, according to a councillor.

Cllr Christine Jones, of the Sealand Ward, says the wreckage of what was once the Gateway to Wales Hotel is now an eye sore and can cause serious accidents.

She added: “I wish they would do something about it, the damage to it is beyond repair, it needs demolishing and then rebuilding.

“There is a guard there and security but there’s no point really. If kids want to get in they will, and they will get seriously hurt.

“Kids will be kids, they will go to abandoned buildings and derelict places and if they go in, they will get hurt. Do these people want that on their conscience?

“The memories are still there of that awful day, it was a horrible night that could have ended in total tragedy.”

Emergency services were called to the hotel, which is situated on Welsh Road, Deeside, at about 4.30pm on December 18 to reports of a fire.

A total of seven crews from Buckley, Deeside, Flint, Chester and Wrexham, together with two aerial ladder platforms from Chester and Wrexham turned up to the incident.

The councillor previously told the leader in May that the building is an eye sore for the community and she now says nothing has been done.

She said: “People are always me what is happening, but I really don’t have the answers.

“It holds a lot of memories for us in the community too but now we are having to live with an eye sore and we don’t want it, we want something positive to come out of it.

“I feel for the people living in the building next to it. They moved in shortly before the fire and now they are having to live with those terrible memories. I wouldn’t like to like there 24/7.

“It was a real community place, people would call in for a pint and use the gym and have christenings there. We just need it doing.

“Rebuilding it would also bring more employment to the area. Flintshire has lost so much. We seem to be losing everything and people are constantly asking where do we go now? I would love to see it rebuilt. It was such a big part of the community.”

The Gateway to Wales is understood to have had about 40 rooms and around 60 firefighters tackled the blaze that destroyed 80 per cent of the ground floor.