A HIGH-END pop-up restaurant is one of the temporary options which could take the empty space vacated by two demolished buildings at the Winter Gardens site.

The deputy leader of BCP Council has revealed that discussions are taking place around the site, ahead of the proposed development starting.

Valentino restaurant and the former office block at Keystone House which housed the Lost Paradise nightclub have now been bulldozed as demolition teams start work on knocking down the three main sites at Exeter Road.

Despite the demolition, Bournemouth Development Company (BDC), the joint venture partnership between BCP Council and Muse Developments, has yet to appoint a contractor to deliver their plans.

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The Daily Echo previously reported that BDC were reviewing some elements of the scheme - which they secured planning for in 2019 - to ensure it meets the needs of the community.

Discussing the Winter Gardens demolition, Cllr Philip Broadhead, BCP Council deputy leader and cabinet member for development, growth and regeneration, said: "First of all it enables the planning permission to be secured and what I am really excited about is what we could do with the space in the meantime.

"The 'meanwhile' use is really important for regeneration happening and we are having some really interesting discussions at the moment about using that town centre seafront location, while the plans are still evolving for what goes there finally, to bring some activity back into the area.

Bournemouth Echo: Cllr Philip Broadhead, BCP Council deputy leader and cabinet member for development, growth and regenerationCllr Philip Broadhead, BCP Council deputy leader and cabinet member for development, growth and regeneration

"Only in the past few weeks we are having conversations about ‘do we put a really nice high end pop restaurant in there?’ ‘Do we have an events space that is all-year round?’

"With the best will in the world, even if we pushed the button on the contractors today, work wouldn't start on site for a year.

"Now those buildings are down and we have got that empty space, let's absolutely use it.

"We have done that across the whole of the past 12 months with our Festival Coast Live agenda, which has been one of the real successes of the past year and that site is a great area that we are definitely going to be using until it is built on."

Planning permission has already been granted for the £150 million Winter Gardens development which will see more than 350 flats, 600 parking spaces and new leisure and retail space.