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STOREY-TIME: An artist's impression of the Terrace Mount scheme

THIS could be a taste of the Bournemouth of the future.

More than 200 environ- mentally- friendly, European-style flats plus a shops complex could be built on the first site released by the big town centre car park sell-off.

Developer Redrow has come up with a drastically revised plan for the Terrace Mount site following "negative comments" made by residents and councillors about a previous scheme.

Terrace Mount - uphill from the former Winter Gardens - is among the first of 14 town centre car parks which are being lined up for sale to private developers, as the Daily Echo reported earlier this week.

Bournemouth Borough Council is pledging there will be no overall loss of parking from the policy, which is intended to release the "airspace" above town centre pay-and-display car parks for development.

At Terrace Mount, the height of the planned main tower has been halved and the number of blocks reduced from four to three smaller blocks, reducing the impact on Bournemouth's skyline, it says.

The number of residential units has also gone down from 225 to 203, reducing the number of residential car parking spaces and the overall bulk of the scheme.

And there will be 150 underground spaces for public car parking which has been designed to give the public "easier access" to the town centre than at present.

There will be a range of flats from one-bedroom apartments to penthouses which will boast stunning views of the sea, says Redrow.

It is hoped that the multi-million pound scheme, which includes restaurants and shops, will attract more people to that side of town, said Stuart Rowlands, managing director of Redrow Homes (Southern Ltd).

Mr Rowlands said: "We hope that the scheme will bring life to this part of Bournemouth as well as provide new residential accommodation.

"Commercial space has also been provided and we hope to attract restaurants."

It is a much more "sensitive" scheme which will fit in with the Exeter Road Development brief, he added.

"We started off with a very striking scheme which, on reflection, was too striking. We have listened to people's comments and experts from the council.

"The scale of the whole scheme has been reduced quite considerably. We hope that by working together with the council we will be able to achieve permission for the development and be able to commence construction this year," he added.

Jane Lock-Smith, managing director of architects, cube_design, said the development would be "environmentally friendly".

The buildings will have a sedum roof, which is like a is like a living carpet covered in self-sustainable plants.

"What we've tried to do is design a development which blends into the town centre in terms of height and mass taking in the principles of the Exeter Road Development Brief," she said.

The construction of the buildings had been planned in an environmentally sensitive way and won praise from government-funded organisation CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) which champions well-designed buildings and public spaces ,she added.

An exhibition of the new plans is on display at the Connaught Hotel until 4pm today where members of the project team are on hand to answer questions from members of the public.

Terrace Mount currently has 261 spaces, so 111 will be lost to the public under the scheme. But the council insists there will be no overall loss of parking from the sell-off of town centre car parks.

A spokesman for Bournemouth Borough Council said: "Planning briefs for many of the sites have yet to be finalised but where there is a net loss at one location the council will ensure there will be gains at others.

"For example a planning application has been submitted for the casino development (Bath Road/Pavilion car parks) which will result in more than 120 extra spaces being created than currently exists and at Beacon Road (site of the proposed Hotel Training School) there will be an additional 50 spaces. Together these more than cover the loss at Terrace Mount."

9:36am Saturday 27th January 2007

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