 IT HAS been a long and winding road. And with every twist and turn there seemed to be another road block to delay the otherwise exciting journey. More than 10 years ago, along with his Cavern City Tours teammates, Bill Heckle had a dream to create a themed Beatles hotel "where it all began". But it was a dream thwarted by nightmares. Many sleepless nights have followed, through which Bill is happy to admit he was supported and sustained only by family friends. But while a date for the completion of the Hard Day's Night Hotel on the corner of Mathew Street has finally been set, Bill and partners won't be at the helm. "We are not going to own any of the hotel, which at one stage we had hoped we would," he says. "But we will have seats on the board and we will certainly have a role in taking it forward." The 120-room building in the heart of the city is set to check in guests by Christmas next year. And Bill revealed to the ECHO that a programme to go out on BBC2 tonight will show the hotel is back on track. "It will be announced on the programme that the hotel will open in December 2006," he says. It was 13 years ago in 1992 when Cavern City Tours came up with the idea to turn the grade-two listed building next to the Cavern into the Hard Day's Night Hotel. They bought the building, confident the project would go ahead. But a series of disasters from 1997 to 2001 saw developer after developer pulling out. And millions of pounds of company profits had been poured into a building which was starting to become derelict. | 
