BUSINESSMAN Richard Carr has officially registered plans for the £250 million redevelopment of three prime Sandbanks sites.

If permission is granted, three well-known hotels will be bulldozed to make way for a new hotel, flats, an ‘aparthotel’ and a restaurant with panoramic views.

The application for outline planning permission was received by the council on March 13 but has only just been validated. A fee of £10,780 has been submitted along with the application.

Proposals include demolishing the Sandbanks Hotel and building a 175-bedroom hotel, along with associated hotel facilities and underground parking in its place.

The scheme would also involve knocking down the Haven Hotel and replacing it with 196 residential apartments in four blocks, as well as a 7,000 sq ft restaurant called the Jurassic Eye at the top of the building.

The Harbour Heights Hotel would be replaced with a 40-suite aparthotel with associated facilities and underground parking.

Mr Carr has been drawing up the schemes on behalf of the owner of all three properties, John Butterworth of FJB Hotels.

He told the Daily Echo: “The Sandbanks and Haven hotels are 100-year-old buildings coming to the end of their economic life cycle.

“No amount of money can put these buildings right because the rooms are too small, the bathrooms are sub-standard and the Harbour Heights does not have a spa, which is expected at this level these days.

“Sandbanks has a high-class reputation and if people are going to stay there they expect facilities that they would get in top hotels in any major city in the world.”

He said work would be phased and that Sandbanks would not be left without a functioning hotel at any point.

And he said the owners would enter into an agreement that any apartments could not be sold or occupied before hotel rooms are open.

Mr Carr said he hopes to secure permission within five to six months and added: “This is an outline application but it covers all issues apart from landscaping.

“It would not take long to turn it into a detailed application and we want to move as quickly as we can.”

Plans for the site originally included a 20-storey tower at the Haven Hotel site, which has now been reduced after consultation with residents and planning officers.