PLANS for a £150m transformation of Bournemouth’s Winter Gardens site have been submitted for consideration by the council.

The proposed scheme is the largest in the town’s history and combines residential, restaurant, leisure and retail space with new parking facilities and a public realm.

The plans envisage the complete transformation of the 1.98 hectare (4.89 acre) site, which has been used as a car park since the demolition of the concert hall in 2006, following its closure four years earlier.

The scheme is being led by the Bournemouth Development Company, a partnership between Bournemouth council and Morgan Sindall Investments.

The plans include 352 one, two and three-bed apartments and penthouses. Most will have balconies or terraces with views of the sea, coastline and conurbation.

The residences are arranged across four multi-storey buildings of varying heights set amidst considerable landscaped grounds.

The 225 public parking spaces currently on site will be re-provided in a new below-ground car park located under a landscaped podium, with 369 dedicated spaces for residents and visitors.

There will also be 356 secure, covered cycle spaces for residents and a further 36 cycle spaces for visitors, as well as additional public cycle spaces.

Up to five units for restaurants are proposed along Exeter Road. A new food store is also planned.

As well as dedicated built space for family leisure, further open areas include a new piazza at the junction of Exeter and Cranborne Road, a linear park alongside Cranborne Road and other publicly-accessible open spaces with opportunities for outdoor cafés and children’s play areas.

A widened area of landscaped pedestrian realm along Exeter Road will help to deliver an important part of the Grand Garden Walk, an initiative to provide a continuous promenade for pedestrians and cyclists around the town centre. This will link with the proposed piazza, creating a hub between the scheme and the recently completed Hilton and BH2 developments.

The scheme will retain established trees around the site and the existing public right of way linking Tregonwell Road and Exeter Road. Additional extensive hard and soft landscaping is also proposed to contribute to the setting of the new development.

Councillor John Beesley, leader of Bournemouth Council, said the scheme would be “transformational” and combine “new homes, leisure and social infrastructure in a location where people will want to live, work and socialise.”

Duncan Johnston, development director of the Bournemouth Development Company, said: “Winter Gardens is a historically important but underutilised site. We’re proposing a forward-looking scheme that meets the needs of Bournemouth now and in the future."