THERE'S one thing about Richard Carr you cannot argue about - the man certainly has a vision for Poole.

Speaking to the Daily Echo in response to MP Robert Syms' opposition to proposals for Sandbanks' Haven Hotel, the businessman said: "There has to be progress, there has to be investment and we are willing to listen to comments."

Mr Syms lodged his opposition to proposals for the Haven Hotel days after he was re-elected as Poole's MP.

A proposed 10-storey apartment block at the site currently occupied by the Haven is part of a wider £250 million scheme that involves the demolition of three Sandbanks hotels.

Mr Carr has drafted plans - on behalf of hotel owner John Butterworth - to replace the Haven with a residential complex of 196 apartments, and demolish the Sandbanks Hotel to make way for a modern 175-bedroom hotel.

Meanwhile, the Harbour Heights would be replaced with a 40-suite apartment hotel.

More than 1,400 comments, in opposition to the plans, have already been lodged with borough planners. The recently-formed Protect Sandbanks Group (PSG) has also vowed to fight the scheme.

Mr Carr said: "I know Robert Syms and at the end of the day he has to represent what he considers to be the mass of the population - although I notice his objection isn't against the whole development, he's objecting to the height of the Haven Hotel. So I take some strength from that.

"With regards to the Protect Sandbanks Group, it is really not surprising there are 1,400 objections. They're handing out flyers to everyone in the ferry queue. They even put one of their flyers on my car last week.

"But this flyer is not representative of what is proposed, it is misleading."

Mr Carr also believes many objections on Borough of Poole's (BOP) planning portal are from people not staying in any three of the hotels, nor ever have.

"So it is a little spurious to be shouting from the rooftops that you have 1,400 objections," he said.

Mr Carr added: "The whole problem is that these people don't want anything to happen to Sandbanks, but what they are forgetting is that these three hotels are beyond commercial investment.

"What you will end up with in five, ten years time is three, two-star hotels taking stag and hen parties.

"Is that what they want next door to where they live? It is do or die, it is as simple as that.

"Yes, the Haven may be slightly too tall, but the Haven has to pay for the building of the two new hotels.

"Most people realise that something needs to be done.

"There has to be progress, there has to be investment and we are willing to listen to comments.

"No doubt, at some stage in the future, we will be talking this through with Borough of Poole's planning department, and we'll be coming to a compromised position."