BOSCOMBE’S Royal Arcade is again being promised a long-awaited restoration by new owners Oram Moss.

The Dorset-based developer have plans to re-point the Victorian building’s brickwork, decorate windows and facades and refurbish 32 two-bedroom maisonette flats on the first and second floors.

Last August another developer, Arnewood Estates, outlined plans to create an artists’ community in the dilapidated accommodation, which overlooks the shops inside the arcade.

Neil Denton, of West Cliff Estates, which will market the flats on behalf of Oram Moss, said they hoped the flats would be ready to market by autumn this year.

“Some of these flats have not been lived in for a long, long time,” he said.

“Oram Moss have a history of renovating old buildings. Last year they renovated the Midland Hotel and turned it into 37 really nice apartments.

“They are one of these developers who like conversion work. Where other builders might shy away from something like the Royal Arcade, they have a great deal of experience.

“Also I think Phil Oram, being a Bournemouth man himself, likes to see the town’s buildings restored to a decent standard.”

Boscombe West councillor Jane Kelly said she welcomed news of any development which would help get young people onto the housing ladder.

“A development of two-bedroom flats for purchase by families is just what we need in Boscombe,” she said.

“We don’t want more bedsits or any of that sort of thing. But anything which will get young people on the property ladder is welcome.”

She said she hoped the flats would be marketed to attract creative people to complement that area of Boscombe, adding: “I’m not sure they would be suitable for families as there is no garden area.

“I believe the arcade accommodation was originally designed for people who worked in the units downstairs, and it would be brilliant if some of the new owners took up a unit there.”