Poole's Sandbanks development to go to public consultation

The latest plans to revamp Poole's prestigious Sandbanks area with multi-million pound hotel, restaurant and property developments will be debated at a public consultation next week.

The plans are the brainchild of local businessman and property developer Richard Carr, who is acting as a consultant to FJB Hotels managing director John Butterworth.

The £200m initiative would involve building a 20-storey waterfront residential property tower on the site of the Haven hotel, which would be home to some 300 flats and a 7,000 sq ft rooftop restaurant called the Jurassic Eye. It also includes a new 150-200 hotel on the site of the Sandbanks hotel and a new 50 room boutique hotel and spa on the Harbour Heights hotel site.

FJB owns all three hotels slated for redevelopment.

Two years ago another local developer, Eddie Mitchell, revealed plans to reimagine Sandbanks, which is most expensive area for property in the UK outside of the capital, as Dorset's answer to Dubai with a development based on the famous Palm complex.

Earlier this year another of Carr's plans, this time a £100m development on behalf of Salterns Marina, was given the green light to create a seven-storey hotel and a six-storey block of luxury flats on an existing 200m quay. That decision proved unpopular with the residents' association.

The scale of the tower on the Haven site is likely to prove controversial, according to reports in the local press.

Talks are taking place with planning authorities in Poole and the three planning applications are expected to be submitted early in the new year.