A SEAFRONT amusement arcade owned by Bournemouth council could be replaced with a new hotel.

The site, Happyland Amusements, is just yards from the borough's planned £70 million BIC hotel scheme, which has drawn controversy with claims the council is taking risks with taxpayers' money.

At the recent Bournemouth Development Plans Conference, attended by developers and major local property owners, Bill Cotton, council executive director of economy and environment, said the borough was looking to market Happylands for redevelopment as a hotel.

However Councillor Philip Broadhead, cabinet member for economic growth, said the council would be seeking interest from the open market rather than investing in redevelopment itself as on the BIC hotel site.

"We have a 999 year lease on it and the Meyrick Estate own the freehold, so everything has to be done by agreement with Meyrick," he said.

"We are trying to put together terms on how we can improve the seafront in general.

"Nothing is formalised yet, but we are trying to progress something on that site, not for us to do but for the open market to do."

Asked whether the site could end up with the council funding construction of a new venture in partnership with a developer, like the BIC hotel, Cllr Broadhead said: "I doubt it, the BIC is a different case."

He said there was no specific intention to build a hotel on the site and it would be "unlikely" considering the physical limitations of the "very difficult" plot, which cuts into the cliff.

He said the market would decide what sort of venture was feasible.

"It is unloved at the moment, and it really should be something," he said.

The future of the site has been uncertain for at least two years. In 2016 council leader Cllr John Beesley wrote to the Echo in response to a reader's query to say that borough wanted to "put in place a long-term plan" for the Happylands site.

He said: "Everyone agrees that the site is currently under-utilised but the question of whether the building itself has any positive and viable redevelopment potential is being analysed.

"It is very much hoped that the next 12 months will see proposals emerge which will enhance the seafront."

The conference, at the BIC last month, was attended by speakers and representatives from Bournemouth and Poole councils, Bourne Asset Management, Talbot Village Trust and Fresh Lime Developments – the latter of which is currently building a new 131-bedroom Malmaison hotel and flats on the former Belvedere Hotel site on the East Cliff.