DEVELOPERS battling to keep their £50million cinema and restaurant project alive have amended their plans to remove a strip of council-owned land.

Bournemouth council tried to pull the plug on the West Central leisure scheme planned for Exeter Road by refusing to sell their part of the site to developers Licet Holdings.

Councillors claimed this effectively killed off the scheme because changing it to exclude council land would need a fresh planning application – which would be likely to be refused now the council has decided it wants a bus station on the site.

But the developers have hit back, insisting they do not need Bournemouth council’s land to continue with the scheme and asking planners to approve some “minor changes” to the approved development.

These amendments, which include reducing the number of car parking spaces from 212 to 183, reducing the internal floor area by 52 square metres and reducing the size of the outdoor decked terraces, would mean the scheme can be built entirely on land owned by car park operator NCP.

Chris Dymond, director of Licet, said: “We’ve always received tremendous support for West Central and it has all the required planning permissions.

“But there has been some discussion about the bus hub on the site and the council recently withdrew its former offer to sell a small strip of land on the edge of the site.

“However, that small area does not have any noticeable impact on the development as a whole as it largely relates to some external seating areas and most importantly it does not affect the contemporary design.

“Best of all, we can keep it entirely within the NCP-owned land. We have made a small design adjustment on the edge of the site and have submitted a routine application for this, with advice from a leading planning consultant.”

Licet say they are currently finalising negotiations with operators wishing to move into West Central and are still hoping to start work this autumn for a 2014 opening.

Council leader Cllr John Beesley said: “We have received an application for minor amendments to Licet’s existing planning approval and planning officers are considering this in the light of planning policy.

“A decision is likely to be made by the planning board in accordance with normal procedure.”