A major hotel chain could soon be moving into Medway.

Premier Travel Inn is being lined up by the owners of the Medway Valley Park in Cuxton Road,Strood, to operate a 120-bed hotel alongside the M2.

A set of plans was filed with Medway Council this week.

It means that a total of four major hotel schemes are being considered by council planners or have just been approved.

They are a four-star conference hotel on the Rochester Riverside site, still about four years away from building, another hotel between the cathedral car park and Corporation Street (recently approved), and a smaller hotel within the Victory Pier development at Gillingham.

The planning application has been made by PRUPIM,the property fund management arm of Prudential plc. It is based in Basinghall Street, London.

The company wants to build its hotel on part of a car park midway between the cinema and the casino, just below the Medway Bridge at the Rochester junction.

Medway’s tourism manager, Simon Curtis, welcomed the latest application.

He said: “It would be very accessible for people over-nighting and for business people, but we do want to see more hotels in the heart of the Towns.

“I would like to see Gillingham and Corporation Street come forward quickly.”

The council has canvassed for up to 500 new bed spaces in central hotels by 2012.

He said: “If this goes through we are getting pretty close to that target.”