A WRANGLE over a type of brick is holding up the long-awaited demolition of the “Ritz for Rats”.

Last year residents on Bournemouth’s West Cliff were celebrating when permission was granted to replace St George’s Hotel with 16 apartments.

The developers got the go-ahead on the condition they dismantle and then rebuild the distinct North and West sides of the building in West Cliff Gardens using the old bricks.

But the builders now claim there will not be enough of the original bricks to complete the project and have applied to change the planning consent to be able to use as similar a type of brick as possible.

Chris Colledge, chairman of the West Cliff Green Res-idents Association, handed in a list of signatures to Bournemouth Borough Council from people supporting the application.

“The sorry saga of St George’s Hotel has gone on long enough. So we want rid of this eyesore.

“It is resting on this brick so we’ve got signatures to support the change of the type of brick to finally see the building demolished.”

The building has been empty for 10 years and was occupied by squatters. Later rodents moved in it was dubbed the “Ritz for rats” with no internal floors, missing windows, a cracked exterior and holes in the roof.

Planning consent demanded that the whole building should be dismantled by hand, with all the salvaged materials from the North and West sides carefully identified, cleaned, recorded, tagged and safely stored on site.

The developers were told that any shortfall in materials with which to rebuild these two façades should be identified after the dismantling of the North and West elevations and should be made up by salvaging materials from the rest of the building.

The developers, Whitelock and Co Ltd, said they “have been helped greatly by the positive attitudes of the residents’ association headed by Mr Colledge”.

Charles Raven, planning officer at the council, said the council was in contact with the applicant over whether there are enough of the original bricks to complete the works as per the planning conditions.

He said: “We are mindful of resident frustrations with the long running history of this site and are working to resolve the matter to progress the development as quickly as possible but in such a way that it still remains sympathetic to the conservation area.”