Homes Under The Hammer star Martin Roberts forced to deny he wants to turn renovated pub into a lap-dancing club
The Homes Under The Hammer presenter has previously admitted to struggling with the transformation of Hendrewen Hotel in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales.
Martin has been hit with a string of glitches since shelling out a reported £200,000 for the pub and budgeting £500,000 for the makeover - and work has been ongoing at the site for more than two years.
But the 61-year-old said the delays have sent the local rumour mill spinning - with suggestions he has given up on the project in the village of Blaencwm and is planning something very different to a pub renovation.
Martin said: 'As things go on, rumours start to get rife so we have to put paid to them now - one is that it's being sold, but I am not selling it, I'm not turning it into a lap dancing club and I'm not turning it into flats!
He said: 'The biggest challenge has been getting it back together, all structurally sound, and it had 150 years of stuff to strip away. It took a lot longer than we thought it would.
'One wall was held up by a piece of steel, which was supported by a bit of wood, which was supported by a final bit of wood that was holding up everything - and it was a rotten piece of timber about an inch thick!'
Martin said many of the delays had been caused by issues around planning permission and ensuring other regulations were met as the building was stripped back.
He says: 'It's not the doing it, it's not the ideas, it's not the enthusiasm and having a great team - it's often the extra things you have to do in terms of planning and regulations because it's going to be a place of public use.
'It means you have to adhere to a thousand billion more rules and regulations and it quite rightly covers everything and it takes forever.
'It's frustrating because I wanted to be further along but it has to be done. But we will get there.'
Martin insisted he wants the hotel to have individually-themed bedrooms based on popular TV shows such as Doctor Who or Top Gear and even Homes Under the Hammer, and wants the restaurant's food to rival top eateries elsewhere.
He said: 'I want it to be somewhere special, not be over-priced but it will be a place where you'll want to come for a special occasion and I think the Valleys deserve that.
'Why shouldn't it be as good as anything you find in Cardiff, London or The Cotswolds? I want people to walk through the door and go, 'I can't believe this is here, because you could be in Bourton-On-The-Water!'
'I will put in lots of memorabilia which I've gathered, but also decorated in [a particular] style.
'So the Fawlty Towers [room] will have wallpaper peeling off, shelves that are breaking, flock bedspreads and very old fashioned fittings.
The 61-year-old said the delays have sent the local rumour mill spinning - but denied he was selling the property or turning it into a lap dancing club
'I've actually got a life-sized cut out of Tom Baker - my era - and I'm currently negotiating on buying a 1970s Dalek.
'The only good thing about any delays is that it means I came up with extra ideas, like the bedrooms. I didn't think of that at the start. It's a big project, there's lots to think about.
'I might give some of the bedrooms to one interior designer to play with. I've been collecting lots of relevant memorabilia and collectables and we've got some great designs already, but I'd quite like to give younger people a chance to come in and do the Doctor Who bedroom, do the Question of Sport bedroom with a little bit of their spin on it..'
Martin has formerly admitted that he didn't tell wife Kirsty about the 'accidental' purchase of the pub - situated near to his farmhouse in South Wales - until after it was complete.
The purchase came just after Martin suffered a health scare a year earlier in 2022 when his heart, kidney and liver failed.
He was hospitalised with chest pains that he mistook for long COVID, but doctors told Martin he was suffering from pericardial effusion, a build-up of fluid in the structure around the heart.
Martin had to have surgery and was ultimately 'given a second chance at life' thanks to the incredible work of surgeons.
The renovation will be documented in a ten-part series called Oops! I Bought A Pub, which will be shown on ITV next year - or whenever the pub finally opens.
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