The UK’s Alton Towers Resort has been given planning approval to build new themed accommodation on site. Based around fairytales, development of The Enchanted Village will start later this year, with opening scheduled for spring 2015.

Located in woodland next to the Alton Towers Hotel, the “fairytale hideaway” will include 120 lodges and five luxury treehouses, as well as children’s play areas and a themed restaurant. Nichols Brown Webber will serve as the architect for the project.

Approval was granted by Staffordshire Moorlands Planning Committee, with some conditions placed such as the need to preserve various historical features of the Deer Park which sits alongside the site.

Mark Kerrigan, development director at Alton Towers Resort, said the new accommodation was aimed at further enhancing the Merlin Entertainments-operated park’s position as a short break destination.

The cost of the project was not revealed, but Kerrigan said the development represented a “significant capital investment”.

Plans for the lodge development were originally submitted in March 2014 – although a previous application was withdrawn in 2013.