REDEVELOPMENT plans for a former Bournemouth town centre cinema site have moved closer to fruition.

Approval in principle has been given for 670 square metres of lower and mid-ground level commercial units, 65 apartments and 61 parking spaces on the former ABC Cinema site in Westover Road.

But before more progress is made on the boarded up premises, described by some Daily Echo readers as “a disgrace to the town", a further detailed planning consent will have to be drawn up and approved.

Libra Homes bought both the vacant Odeon and ABC cinema sites in 2017 for a reported £6.15million but saw its first applications to redevelop the buildings refused by the then Bournemouth Borough Council.

Permission was obtained to convert and extend the former Odeon building at 37-41 Westover Road into 64 flats and commercial space was approved by BCP Council last year.

Now the local authority's planners have approved in principle the latest redevelopment plans for ex-ABC site at 27-28 Westover Road from Libra Homes.

The outline consent allows for ‘substantial demolition’ of the site and rebuilding including a range of uses such as restaurants and retail, but could also include non-residential uses, assembly and leisure.

BCP say that because of the importance of the site to the townscape extensive negotiations have been taking place between officers and the company to achieve an appropriate design.

The majority of the flats proposed are one or two bed, some described as studio flats, with one 3-bed flat on the first and third floors  and two on the fourth floor.

Twenty one car parking spaces are shown on the bottom level and 41 on the floor above with 62 bicycle spaces on the upper ground floor, terraced garden areas and a bin store.

Concerns about the re-development include the loss of the cinema, what one objector described as the ‘unimaginative’ use of the space, the mass of the proposed building with an additional four storeys proposed on the Hinton Road side above the existing three storeys, and whether parking provision is adequate.

The Art Deco Westover Road façade of the building is proposed to remain with a new building above and behind – originally put forward as five additional floors, but now reduced to three in the latest iteration of the scheme.

A planning officer's report on the outline application said: “The proposal will have key public benefits by securing the retention and refurbishment of existing historic facades, meeting housing targets, giving life to a redundant building and maintaining a commercial use on the Westover Road frontage.

"On the other hand the new development will have a dominating impact on the street scene particularly Hinton Road and change the simple form of the structure which warrants heritage asset status.

"Whilst is has been argued in some quarters that the cinema or some other form of cultural establishment could be sourced for the building so that it need not be developed, I do not consider this to be likely and would not in my view allow for the enhancement of the façade.”