Owners Les and Vanessa Scott are seeking permission from Breckland Council for the proposal and hope to have the new facilities up and running by the end of the year.

The current hotel has ten bedrooms and suites so the new units will significantly increase its capacity at a time when it is enjoying good trade with an 86 per cent occupancy rate.

Mrs Scott said the neighbouring cottage, which they already own, in Ash Close would house two suites and the café. The old Coe's print works would be converted into a further two big suites, with self-catering kitchens, to accommodate families.

A pedestrian walkway would be created, linking the hotel with the new suites, and the grounds in front of the hotel would be given a total makeover by a landscape gardener.

"We are trying to find a solution to the increased parking we need here that doesn't impose on the main building because we don't want cars driving up to the front," she said.

Mrs Scott said parked cars would be screened off to the side of the hotel by a specially- created framework of trees.

Renowned environmental architect Paul Lucas, who designed Swaffham's showpiece EcoTech Centre, has drawn up the plans for the conversion work on the former print works and cottage for the Scotts.

Mrs Scott said the café would have Fair Trade organic coffee and home-made cakes and salads, and the new suites would be named after members of the Coe family "as a thank-you to them for what they have done".

An artist was also working on designs to reflect the former print works within the new suites, she pointed out.