Second attempt at Winter Gardens plan - but does Bournemouth council have other ideas? (From Thisisdorset)

Second attempt at Winter Gardens plan - but does Bournemouth council have other ideas?

3:00pm Monday 10th September 2012 in Latest

DEVELOPERS are making a second attempt to win planning permission for a £150million scheme for Bournemouth’s Winter Gardens site.

But Bournemouth council maintains it has different plans for the prime piece of land.

The new application, submitted by Planning Solutions Partnership, once again seeks to build a hotel, cinema , shops, apartments, public piazzas and leisure facilities on the site of the demolished concert hall.

A similar application was submitted by Planning Solutions at the end of last year but was withdrawn before councillors could consider it – a move that led to the developers being labelled “time-wasters”.

This new application is said to have “significantly refined and improved” the proposed scheme from the one in the first application.

The applicant claims an American leisure operator has shown a “significant interest” in running the cinema and leisure facilities and has dismissed suggestions the town cannot support two large cinema complexes.

“This is the first time that a completely comprehensive development has been possible for this site,” the planning application states. No pubs, nightclubs or takeaways are being applied for.

“Significant care has been taken to incorporate the needs of the town and to create a mixed use scheme with wet weather family entertainment, residential, leisure, eateries and active external areas. These were the wishes of trade and residents we have liaised with.”

But gaining planning approval is only one half of the battle. The Daily Echo reported back in April that the site had been brought back into council ownership and would be redeveloped as part of the Town Centre Master Vision.

Both Bournemouth Borough Council and the Bournemouth Development Company, the council-developer partnership carrying out the Vision, have confirmed the position has not changed since.

But Tony Ramsden, of Planning Solutions Partnership, said their understanding was that this could change if they could demonstrate that could bring about a redevelopment of the site quicker than the Bournemouth Development Company. He said the applicants also owned the frontage buildings.